THE  STANDARD  BEARERS- OFFICIAL  EDITION. 

—  THE  

AUTHORIZED  PICTORIAL  LIVES 

OF 

JAMES  GILLESPIE  ELAINE 

AXD 

JOHN  ALEXANDER  LOGAN, 

INCLUDING 

.IR    BOYHOOD  AND    EARLY    STRUGGLES,  SUCCESSIVE    TRIUMPHS    AND    SPLENDID    ACHIEVEMENTS    IN    THE 
NATION'S  COUNCIL  HALLS  AXD  AMID  THE   SMOKE   AND   CARNAGE   OF  BATTLE,  GRAND   QUALITIES  AS 
CIVIC  AND  MARTIAL  LEADERS,  AND  EMINENT  PUBLIC  SERVICES  AS  STATESMEN,  DIPLOMATS,  ETC. 

WITH 

DRED3  0V   AUTHENTIC    PERSONAL    INCIDENTS,  ANECDOTES    AND    REMINISCENCES,  COLLECTED    AT    THEIB 

BOYHOOD  AND  PRESENT  HOMES,  AND  MANY  OF  THEM  NEVER  BEFORE  PUBLISHED. 
ALSO  EMP.::AOI\<; 

GRAPHIC    ACCOUNT   OF    THE  GREAT  CONVENTION  OF  ISSl,  A  SYNOPSIS  OF  ALL  PREVIOUS  NATIONAL  row 

TIONS,  THE  FAMOUS  NOMINATING  SPEECHES  OF  187(i  AND  1S80,  WITH  OTHER  POLITICA  L 

INFORMATION  INVALUABLE  TO  EVERY  VOTER. 


J.  W. 

Author  of  " Russian  Nihilism  and  Exile  Life  in  Siberia,"     "Legends  of  the  O/ark," 
"Heroes  of  the  Plains,"  etc.,  etc. 


I 

W.  E.  S.  WHITMAN,  Esq., 

Editor  of  ••Kennehec  Journal."  Aujrustfi,  Maine,  Hon.  Jas.  G.  Elaine's  former  partner;  and 
with  the  aid  of  Mr.  Blame's  Private  Secretary. 


NEW  STEEL  PLATE  PORTRAITS  AND  FINE  ENGRAVINGS  FROM  ORIGINAL  PHOTOGRAPHS,  ETC. 


NEW  YORK  AND  ST.  Louis: 

JST.    I).    THOMPSON    PUBLISHING    CO. 

1886. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1884,  i>y 

N.  D.  THOMPSON  A  CO. 
In  the  office  of  toe  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


The  sovereignty  of  American  citizenship,  enjoyed  by 
the  freemen  of  our  heaven-kissed  Republic,  is  a  privilege  of 
almost  divine  emanation ;  it  is  the  inspiration  that  nestles  in 
the  babe,  and  expands  the  heart  of  manhood ;  it  nourishes 
youth  and  blossoms,  with  delicious  exhalation,  in  all  our 
institutions,  spanning,  with  rainbow  radiance,  this  favored 
land,  and  shedding  the  brightest  beams  of  happiness  over  all 
our  country.  Under  so  benign  and  fructifying  an  influence, 
who  can  measure  the  aspirations  which  it  incites?  Who 
can  estimate  the  destiny  of  the  humblest  born,  the  least 
advantaged  sovereign  in  our  sisterhood  of  commonwealths  ? 

The  life  histories  of  America's  Presidents,  the  civil  rulers 
and  lance-bearers  of  this  new  but  most  stalwart  hero  among 
the  empires  of  the  world,  are  fruitful  with  all  that  is  cour 
ageous,  gracious  and  wholesome  in  example.  From  the 
formation  of  the  first  colonial  government,  through  vicissi 
tudes  of  great  trial  and  changes,  rendered  necessary  by 
rapid  growth,  to  this  latest  period  of  our  prosperity,  have 
risen,  year  after  year,  magnificent  champions  of  our  insti 
tutions  and,  by  an  exhibition  of  wise  statesmanship,  have 
allowed  no  impairment  of  benefits  guaranteed  by  our  original 
magna  charta. 

In  countries  governed  by  hereditary  rulers,  law  is  the 
science  of  oppressing  many  for  the  benefit  of  a  few ;  it  is  the 

M212140 


vj  FAME. 

<  ha  i  u>r  privilege  of  luxuriating  off  the  products  of  handi- 
industry,  the  tribute  laid  by  lordlings  on  helpless 
In  America  that  fundamental  edict  declaring  that 
all  men  shall  be  equal  before  the  law,  is  axiomatic,  because 
among  us  it  is  universal,  and  serves  as  a  demonstration  of 
individual  sovereignty. 

In  this  country,  where  the  lurking  poison  of  hereditary 
succession  has  not  obtained,  brain  is  the  measure  of  fitness, 
\altation  comes  only  through  the  avenues  of  intelli 
gence  to  crown  the  brow  of  competence.  Fame  mantles 
yes  with  the  veil  of  justice,  lest  favoritism  should  woo 
h«  i  from  noble  purposes,  and  she  has,  therefore,  made 
rourage,  ability,  honesty,  and  love  of  country  the  standard 
}>y  which  her  heroes  are  judged  and  rewarded.  The  little 
)»oy  born  in  a  manger,  nourished  in  poverty,  denied  the 
advantages  of  a  country  school,  with  labor  in  hand  and 
iirnn  ranee  for  companionship,  may  yet  draw  conceptions  of 
knowledge  from  the  inherent  genius  implanted  by  universal 
oHiseoship;  fame  smiles  not  at  his  humble  birth,  but  beck- 
oniiiLr  him  on,  leads  through  bright  fields  laden  with  the 
honey  of  aspiration,  on,  on  to  that  proud  pinnacle  from 
whirh  >hines  the  beacon  of  lofty  attainment. 

11'  who  fails  to  read  the  biographies  of  America's  great 
politiral  leaders,  fails  not  only  in  a  duty  of  paramount 
importance,  but  denies  himself  a  privilege*  which  cannot  be 
romput, --1  for  its  great  value.  The  spark  of  success  oft 
:1:'J:'  -  ':i'  into  •<.  flami  of  Penon  n.  \\lini  hron-lit  in  contact 
with  the  illustrious,  so  strongly  is  man's  destiny  moulded. 


FAME.  Vll 

Fame  rests  upon  a  basis  of  improved  circumstances.  No 
better  illustration  of  this  can  the  world  give  of  any  accepted 
truth  than  is  afforded  by  the  life  of  nearly  every  President 
who  has  presided  over  our  nation.  Their  biographies, 
therefore,  become  our  exemplars,  and  the  incentives  of 
national  pride  which  guarantee  the  perpetuity  of  our 
government ;  they  are  no  less  a  text-book  than  is  the  Consti 
tution,  and  every  sovereign  citizen  is  a  student  who  should 
aspire  to  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  our 
great  bill  of  rights,  under  which  all  may  achieve  honorable 
station  and  distinguished  position.  J.  W.  B. 


CONTENTS, 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

LIFE    OF    JAMES    G.    BLALNE. 

FXMB 

<  ii  \riKR  I.-APPLICABLE  OBSERVATIONS.— Master  minds— 

Y,,r,ueal  g,-niuses-Birth  of  James  G.  Blainc-H is  ancestors 

uvular  deed  made  by  an  Indian— Ephraim  Blame  as 

an  oflUvr  in  the  Revolution— Distinguished  services  and  re- 

wards-A  duel  to  the  death,  with  a  strange  sequel— The 

ue  descendants— Something  concerning  the  Gillespies,      I/ -62 

•  II  MTER  II.-BOYIIOODOP  JAMES  G.  BLAINE.— His  fondness 

f.,r  limiting— Aii  incident  not  wholly  painless— Climbing  for 

n  amftliu  result— Reminiscences  of  the  Blaine  family 

The  historv  of  a  tombstone— An  anecdote— How  the  Blaines 

lost  their  property— Blaine  as  a  mischief-maker— Teacher  in 

a  deal  anu  dumb  asylum— A  sad  love-story,  -         33-45 

ITKR  III.— MEAGER  FACILITIES  FOR  SCHOOLING.— Droll 

ri«»s  about  Jim  Blalne's  pranks— An  interview  with  Blame's 

Ant  school-teacher— His  first  chastisement— A  funny  story 

foreverybodv  but  Blaine— Going  up  head  in  his  class  on 

typographically ''—Awfully  shy  of  the  girls— A  joke  that 

fell  hard  uu  the  perpetrator,  -  -       .     46-56 

<  II  \ITER  IV.— MOKE  OF  ELAINE'S  TRICKS.— Having  fun  with 

a  farmer— Little  Jim's  sympathy  for  a  poor  widow— Righting 
a  grievous  wrong — Young  Blaino  to  the  rescue  of  a  poor 
•Aft— Efforts  to  save  his  property — Jim  Blaine  receives  the 
ble&siugs  of  his  dying  mother,  ...  57-65 

<  11  \  1TKH  V. — CONCERNING  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  Mue.  BLAINE. 

•  •a  M»nt  to  school  in  Ohio — Graduates  there  and  enters 
.ington  College,  Pa.— His  popularity  in  the  school — For 
the  uuder  dog  in  every  fight— Graduates  finally — Teaches 
iiool  in  Carlisle,  Pa.— Accepts  a  position  in  a  military 
academy— A  terrible  fight— Falls  in  love  with  a  pretty  school 
teacher—His  marriage,  -       66-73 

«  11  \ITI.K  VI.— HAPPY  WITH  ins  HEART'S  LOVE.— Climbing 
tin-  rugged  steps  of  ambition— Mr.  Blaiue  becomes  an  editor 
II-    enters    politics— Stumping  for   Fremont — Elected  to 
.i-lai ure— Chosen  Speaker  of  the  House— Gov.  Kent's 
He— His  services  in  helping  to  form  the  Re 
v—Drafted  the  first  Republican  platform  in 
Us  famous  address  at  the  first  great  Republican 

-        74-77 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  VII.— MR.  ELAINE'S  MAIDEN  SPEECH.— His  cele 
brated  speech  on  the  proposal  to  purchase  Cuba — The  reso 
lutions  drafted  and  reported  by  him  in  the  Legislature  of 
1858 — Pronouncing  against  slavery — Chosen  delegate  to  the 
National  Republican  Convention  of  1856 — A  wonderful 
speech — Another  important  set  of  resolutions — His  services 
in  suppressing  the  rebellion,  78-85 

CHAPTER  VI1L—  MR.  ELAINE'S  POWER  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER. 
— Unanimously  nominated  for  Congress — His  speech  accept 
ing  the  nomination — Again  unanimously  nominated  for  re 
election — His  letter  to  Gen.  J.  R.  Bachelder — A  great  and 
grand  enunciation  of  anti-slavery  principles — His  record  in 
Congress — Elaine's  vigorous  collision  with  Roscoe  Conkling 
— His  influence  on  reconstruction  measures,  80-04 

CHAPTER  IX.— ELAINE  is  RETURNED  TO  CONGRESS  AGAIN 
IN  1806.— The  Elaine  Amendment  to  Steven's  Military  Bill— 
His  great  speech  on  the  money  question — A  masterly  answer 
to  Pendletou's  financial  theories, 

CHAPTER  X.— MR.  ELAINE  ELECTED  TO  THE  SPEAKERSHIP. 
— A  Democratic  House  elected — Mr.  Elaine's  forensic  joists 
— His  wonderful  abilities  as  a  debater — Appointed  to  the 
United  States  Senate — A  farewell  address  to  his  Congres 
sional  constituents — Newspaper  opinions,  -  98-103 

CHAPTER  XL— MR.  ELAINE  AS  A  SENATOR.— His  opposition 
to  Chinese  immigration — His  vote  against  the  Electoral 
Commission — Spe-ech  before  the  New  York  Chamber  of 
Commerce  on  our  carrying  trade — How  he  circumvented 
Plaisted's  plot  for  stealing  the  Governorship  of  Maine,  104-106 

CHAPTER  XII. — ENDEARMENT  OF  ELAINE  TO  THE  PEOPLE. — 
A  demand  for  his  nomination  as  President — The  Convention 
of  1876 — How  Hayes  secured  the  nomination — His  loyalty  to 
the  party  through  success  and  defeat,  -  107-109 

CHAPTER  XIII. — THE  PEOPLE  AGAIN  CRY  OUT  FOR  ELAINE'S 
NOMINATION  IN  1880. — Elaine  vs.  the  Third  Term — A  com 
promise  on  Garfield — Enthusiasm  of  the  country — A  spirited 
campaign— Elaine  in  the  front  as  usual — Appeals  for  his 
help  everywhere,  110-112 

CHAPTER  XIV. — APPOINTMENT  FOR  AN  INTERVIEW  BETWEEN 
ELAINE  AND  GARFIELD. — He  is  urged  to  accept  the  Port 
folio  of  State — His  letter  of  acceptance,  113-115 

CHAPTER  XV.— MR.  ELAINE'S  CAREER  AS  A  DIPLOMATS.— 
A  true  exponent  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine — His  interpretation 
of  the  Clayton-Buhver  Treaty — A  vigorous  declaration  of 
rights — His  proposals  for  a  Peace  Congress — The  essence  of 
his  South  American  policy — His  brilliant  conception  for  in 
creasing  American  commerce — What  the  results  of  his  policy 
would  have  been — A  great  misfortune,  -  110-122 


X  CONTENTS. 

Ml  \riT.K   XVI.— GARKIELU'S  ADMINISTRATION.— Factional 

\  cen  the  Stalwarts  and  llalf-Breeds— Conklin^'s  op- 

•  Blaine — Conkliug's  inglorious  defeat — Spirit  of 

assassination  aroused— The  Stalwarts  alarmed— No  peace 

utn  the  party,  -  123-126 

i  H  M'l  I  ill  XVII.— A  RESUME  OF  Mu.  BLAINE'S  WONDERFUL 
KR. — The  large  and  noble  heart  that  bled  with  sym- 
•liy — Gartield's  assassination — Long  months  of  suffering 
h  and  life  fighting  for  the  mastery— A  pathetic  inci- 
in    An 


—The  Destroying  Angel  steals  away  Gariield's  spirit— 

ttion  in  mourning,  -  -  127-129 

MI  \;TI;K  XVUI.— FUNEBAL OF GARFIELD.— Mr.  Blaine  ap 
pointed  by  Congress  to  deliver  the  memorial  oration— Great 
-t  manifested  by  the  entire  nation— Congress  appro 
priately  draped— A  terrible  crowd — Mr.  Elaine's  oration,        130-133 

Ml  MTI:K  XFX.— CHARACTER  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CONVEN- 
i  I"N  OF  1SS4.— A  history  of  our  National  Conventions— The 
"f  thirteen  great  Presidential  campaigns — Memorable 
struggle-*  and  triumphs— Incidents  and  speeches — The  ex 
citing  tour*  of  1800— Party  splits,  lights  and  factions— Full 
i  of  the  Convention  of  Lss4— Some  sharp  speaking — 
in  of  the  Republican  party— Blaine  in  nomination— 
How  Logan's  name  was  received— Full  text  of  JngersoU's 
sp«-«vh  nominating  Elaine  in  187G— Conkling's  speech 

1 ilnating  Grant  in  1880— Gartield's   speech  nominating 

Sherman  In    isso-Speech   of    Judge   West,    nominating 
in  1884-Great  rejoicing— Telegrams  of   oongra* 

-      134-201 

MI  \ITERXX.— How  THE  COUNTRY  RECEIVED  THE  NOMINA- 

ION  OF  Hi.AiNE.— Popular  enthusiasm  everywhere— Ratifi- 

*  in  ail  parts  of  New  York-Predictions  of  success— 

"j  of  support  from  the  Administration— Something 

Harper  s  Weekly'*  and  the  "New  York  Times,"    ?  135-207 

'  "  V,  '  I:IJ.  ^XL— RECE»T»ON   OF   THE    NOMINATION    AT 

LI>  H '>MK.— Augusta's  streets  filled  with  rejoic- 

— Factories  and  workshops   closed— Firini   of 

uts  and  hn/zahs  for  Blainei-How  Blaine  wJ  af 

by  the  news  of  his  no.nination-llis  addres«  to  the 

that  thronged  about  his  residence,  -  208  »13 

'" 

214-218 


CONTENTS.  XI 

How  he  bodly  met  Mulligan's  charges — A  complete  vindica 
tion  in  the  Senate— Hon.  William  Walter  Phelps'  letter  ex 
plaining  Mr.  Elaine's  transactions  in  certain  railroad  bonds — 
Statement  of  E.  P.  Brooks,  219-232 

CHAPTER  XXIV.— MR.  ELAINE  OFFICIALLY  NOTIFIED  OF 
His  NOMINATION. — Address  of  Chairman  Henderson — Mr. 
Elaine's  response— A  pleasant  greeting,  233-237 

CHAPTER  XXV.— ORIGIN  OF  OFFICIAL  NOTIFICATIONS  TO 
PRESIDENTIAL  NOMINEES. — The  downfall  of  "  King  Caucus'' 
— Jackson  never  notified — How  he  got  the  news  of  his  nomi 
nation — Party  platforms  originated  in  1840— How  it  came 
about— First  formal  letter  of  acceptance  in  1852— Abraham 
Lincoln's  acceptance — Singular  letters — Garfield's  letter  of 
acceptance — Why  Mr.  Elaine  deferred  his  letter  until  after 
the  Democratic  Convention,  -  -  238-248 

CHAPTER  XXVI.— MR.  ELAINE'S  FOREIGN  POLICY.— Oppo 
sition  to  English  mannerisms— The  man  who  refuses  to  bow 
at  foreign  dictation — A  man  who  will  protect  American  sub 
jects — The  Virginius  massacre — Emory  Storr's  speech  on 
Elaine's  policy,  -  249-253 

CHAPTER  XXVII.— MR.  ELAINE  IN  PRIVATE  LIFE.— His 
phenomenal  memory — What  opposition  papers  say  of  him — 
Mr.  Elaine's  family — His  generosity  and  kindness — His  home 
in  Augusta — How  he  works,  -  -  254-262 

CHAPTER  XXVIII.— MR.  ELAINE'S  RELIGION.— Does  any 
particular  creed  affect  his  honesty? — Mr.  Elaine's  statements 
concerning  his  religion — His  brilliant  conversational  powers 
— Opinion  of  his  pastor  concerning  the  purity  of  Mr.  Elaine,  263-274 

CHAPTER  XXIX.— MR.  ELAINE'S  PHYSICAL  VIGOR.— Re 
view  of  his  "  Twenty  Years  of  Congress" — His  literary  qual 
ifications — His  workshop  in  Washington — The  profits  of  his 
literary  work,  ...  -  275-279 

CHAPTER  XXX.— CONCERNING  SOCIAL  REQUIREMENTS  IN 
OFFICIAL  LIFE. — Departure  from  the  old  fashions — Society 
becoming  anti-democratic — An  un-Americanizing  influence 
—Mr.  Elaine  one  of  the  people — Mrs.  Elaine's  accomplish 
ments — Her  qualifications  for  mistress  of  the  White  House — 
Points  of  resemblance  between  Mrs.  Elaine  and  Mrs.  Logan 
— Their  popularity  and  characteristics,  -  2SO-284 

CHAPTER  XXXI.— MR.  ELAINE'S  POPULARITY  AMONG  THE 
PEOPLE  OF  HIS  STATE.— A  prophet  with  honor  in  his  own 
country — Epistolary  opinions — Mr.  Stephens  pays  a  tribute 
to  Mr.  Elaine's  abilities  and  honesty — A  splendid  letter  from 
Hon.  J.  A.  Homan  of  Augusta — Elaine's  action  in  the  days 
that  tried  men's  souls.  -  -  285-297 

SONG  FOR  ELAINE.— A  SPIRITED  POETICAL  EFFUSION,        298-300 


xn  CONTENTS. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

LIFE  OF  GEN.  JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


<  II  \ITER  I.— DISADVANTAOESOF  LOGAN'S  YOUTH.— How  he 

ne  adverse  circumstances  —  Character  of  Southern 

Illinois  people— Where  Logan  was  born— Dr.  John  Logan— 

lift-,  wanderings,  marriage  to  an  Indian  woman,  and 

1  settlement  in  Illinois— His  large  practice— Mrs.  Logan 

-Her  abilities  and  high  connections— the  Logan  family,    -  304-309 

•  H  \1TKK  II.— JACK  LOGAN  AS  A  BOY.—  His  disposition  for 
l.orse-raring,  fiddling,  dancing  and  perpetrating  jokes— His 
-t  schooling— How  he  induced  his  teacher  to  give  a  holi- 
v  on  Christinas— Early  indications  of  the  natural  orator- 
Going  to  school  in  a  log  hut— How  teacher  Lynch  applied  the 
gad  to  Tom  Logan— Intimate  relations  between  Jack  and  his 
..•r— Taught  at  home— Learning  Latin  and  Greek— De 
claiming  from  a  stump  to  the    listening  forests— Logan's 
genius,      --------  310-313 

(H  \  ITKR  III.— JACK  AS  A  FARMER  BOY.— A  recalcitrant  plow 

—The  old  grist  mill— Great  times  for  the  boys — Going  to 

mill  on  horseback  and  returning  home  afoot,  carrying  the 

grist— Quillings,  log-rollings,  applo-pearings,  corn-huskings 

and  other  »» frolics  M— A  dance  that  ended  disastrously  to 

n*8  sister— A  joke  on  the  preacher— Ichabod  Crane  and 

live  terrible  Devils— .Jack  Logan  as  Beelzebub — The  meeting 

Crab  Orchard  Bridge— How  the  Lord  helped'  Ichabod  to 

wrestle  with  Satan,       ------  314-322 

til  \riKK  IV.— JACK  LOGAN  ENLISTS  AS  A  PRIVATE  IN  THE 
•  AN  WAR.— Promoted  for  intrepidity — His  election  as 
<  l.-i  k  «.(  Jackson  county,  Illinois— Enters  upon  the  study  of 
law — Graduates  at  the  Louisville  Law  school — Elected  Prose 
cuting  Attorney— His    rapid  progress  in  his  profession — 
the  Legislature — Chosen  as  a  Buchanan  elector — 
eloquence — Logan's  novel  defense  in  a  murder 
nial,      -  .  ...  323-326 

(I!  \  I*  1  i:il  V.— A  DASTARDLY  MuRDEK.-.Cries  for  vengeance 

:ig  him;"    u  lynch   him"  —  Logan    employed    to 

unlerer— Great  excitement  over  the  aunounce- 

ybody  anxious   to  hear  Logan's   speech — A 

irt-house— The  matchless  Eloquence  of  his  ad- 

"  i"  ih"  us  and  laughter  strangely  intermin- 

;iiittt-d  through  Logan's  marvellous 

•lay  for  Logan,  Green  Wommack  and  Gol- 

••'•      -  327-333 


CONTENTS.  XIII 

CHAPTER  VI.— LOGAN'S  SENTIMENTS  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF 
THE  RKBELION. — His  speech  in  Congress,  January  18G1 — 
Southern  Illinois  sympathizes  with  the  South — Logan  goes 
among  his  people  and  declares  his  adherence  to  the  Union — 
Joins  a  Michigan  regiment  as  a  private,  and  participates  in 
the  first  battle  at  Bull  Run — Returns  to  Illinois  to  enlist 
troops — Threatened  by  a  Southern  Illinois  mob — His  rela 
tives  on  the  point  of  entering  the  Confederate  service — 
Logan  persuades  them  to  abandon  their  intentions — His 
great  speech  at  Marion — Induces  a  company,  raised  for  the 
Confederate  service,  to  enter  the  Union  army — A  complete 
refutation  of  the  charge  that  he  inclined  towards  the  South,  334-339 

CHAPTER  VII.— THE  VALOROUS  THIRTY-FIRST  REGIMENT— 

Logan  recruits  it,  and  as  Colonel  goes  with  it  to  the  front — 
The  battle  of  Belmont — Logan  proves  his  bravery  and  skill 
as  a  commander — Leading  charge  after  charge — Saves  the 
day  by  almost  unparalled  heroism — Cuts  his  way  through  a 
phalanx  and  captures  150  prisoners,  -  -  340-347 

CHAPTER  VIIL— LOGAN  AT  THE  STORMING  OP  FT.  HENRY.— 
More  hard  fighting — Importance  of  the  capture  of  Ft.  Henry 
—The  battle  of  Ft.  Donelsoa— Logan  again  leads  the  brave 
Thirty-First — Up  to  the  breach  in  three  desperate  charges — 
Logan  sustains  the  brunt  of  battle — He  is  desperately  woun 
ded—Refuses  to  leave  the  field — Has  his  wound  rudely 
dressed  and  by  his  orders  is  lifted  into  the  saddle  again — His 


epigrammatic  words  to  the  surgeon — Fights  until  every  car 
tridge  is  exhausted — Oglesby's  tribute  to  ~ 


to  Logan's  bravery,     348-359 


CHAPTER  IX.— LOGAN'S  INTENSE  SUFFERING  DOES  NOT  DI 
MINISH  HisAtiDOR. — Goes  again  to  the  front  before  his 
wound  heals — Participates  in  the  bloody  fight  at  Pittsburg 
Landing — Again  wounded — With  one  arm  in  a  sling  he 
keeps  his  place  and  leads  another  charge  at  Corinth — Pro 
moted  to  Major-General — His  famous  reply  to  an  appeal 
made  by  his  old  Congressional  constituents — Glorious  utter 
ances  of  a  great  soldier  and  patriot,  -  360-363 

CHAPTER  X.— LOGAN  is  AGAIN  PROMOTED,  AS  MAJOR-GEN 
ERAL.—  The  battle  of  Champion  Hill— By  an  irresistible 
charge  routs  the  enemy  and  opens  the  road  to  Vicksburg— 
Assigned  to  command  of  the  Third  Division,  17th  Army 
Corps — The  siege  of  Vicksburg — Logan  first  to  attack — 
Leading  a  storming  party — Planting  the  colors  on  blazing 
parapets — A  terriftic  struggle — How  Logan  sent  a  fleet  of 
steamers  through  the  blockade — A  record  that  is  without 
parallel — Has  the  place  of  honor  in  the  entrance  of  the  vic 
torious  army  into  Vicksburg — A  beautiful  tribute  from  his 
soldiers,  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  364-372 


CONTENTS. 

(  H  \riTR  XI.—  LOGAN  is  APPOINTED  MILITARY-GOVERNOR 

11  ,\     V  ,  mi  *£.  -Returns    home    and  tires  the  Northern 

rt  «itfa  ,.:uri,,iic  speeches-Appointed  to  command  1   the 

r.th   \nnv  <  '..ms—  III  the  Atlanta  campaign—  Battle  of  BUZ- 

,;,Lt-He  beats  the  enemy  at  Resaca-Twenty  days 

,,f  .....minions  fi-hting-Logan'sheroic  assault  at  Kcnesaw- 

Kidin-  int..  thcjawa  of  death-Death  of  Gen.  McPherson- 

i     M,?,,rd.-ivd  to  take  command  of  the  Army  of  the  lennes- 

>h.Tii»an's  laudation  of  Logau-A  soldier  s  opm- 

>,.„  «>f  Logan,  - 

(11  UTER  XII.—  THE  BATTLE  BEFORE  ATLANTA.—  Logan  at- 

,rd  hv  Hood's  army-Repulses  Cheatham  with  great  loss 

and  holds  his  ground—The  battle  of  Jonesboro—  Logan  en 

gages  Hardee  and  breaks  the  Confederate  lines—  Evacuation 

Atlanta—  Logmn  triumphantly  enters  the  city—  Great  re- 

j..  icing  over  the  event  in  the  North—  Logan's  tactics,  his 

brilliant  dashes,  stubborn  fighting,  skilful  maneuvering— 

_:an  never  lost  a  battle, 

Ml  \1TKK  XIII.—  LOGAN  ENTERS  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  CAM- 
I-MCJN  OK  1804.—  A  memorable  speech  which  the  writer 
.id  him  deliver—  Election  being  over,  Logan  returns  to 
th«-  field—  In  the  campaign  of  the  Carolinas—  The  war  con- 
,  .luded—  Review  of  the  Union  Army  at  Washington—  Some 
ivuYctions  mingling  joy  with  sorrow  —  The  most  beautiful 
poem  inspired  by  the  war—  Logan's  glory—  Offered  the  posi 
tion  of  Minister  to  Mexico—  Elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  .....  -  397-415 

<  II  UTER  XIV.—  A  RESUME  OF  LOGAN'S  LIFE.—  The  practical 

school  iu  which  he  received  his  training—  Distinguished 
members  of  the  Illinois  Legislature  during  his  term— 
1  '^an's  vigor  finds  display  only  after  careful  consideration 
—His  opposition  to  the  Fitz  John  Porter  Relief  Bill—  His 
great  five-days  speech  on  the  bill—  Its  effect  upon  public 
opinion,  ...  -  413-42^ 

<  II  \  I'll.  K    XV.  —  SOME    OP    THE    MALICIOUS   SLANDERS 

MN-T    LOGAN  —  How   he    vindicated    himself   against 
of  treason—  His  honesty  and  purity  —  His  studious 
:ipl>lir:ition  to  official  duties—  An  incident  illustrating  his 

-  425-431 


II  \  i1  1  KR  XVI.—  THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SOLDIER  VOTE.— 
Tln-h  i-:inn--t  attachment  to  Logan  —  Presentation  of  Logan's 
in  tin-  National  Convention  of  1884—  Speech  of  Sena- 


nil.  mi   placing  Logan  in  nomination.     The  wild  ap- 
1»1  rccted  nis  name  —  How  Logan's  friends  deferred 

to  piipul:ir  \\Mn-     The  demand  for  his  nomination  for  the 
Vi  nc)     \"iiiiii;iu«d    by  acclamation  —  Some  elo- 

<iu«'nt  x|M-,-t  -li«  -     ||,,\\  I...  --in  received  the  news  of  his  nomi- 
n:t:  ic  scene,       -  ...  433-441 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XVI  [. — LOGAN  OFFICIALLY  NOTIFIED  OP  HIS  NOMI 
NATION — His  reply  to  the  address  of  the  committee  on  noti 
fication—Serenaded  by  the  veteran  soldiers  and  sailors  of 
Washington — His  eloquent  speech  acknowledging  the  com 
pliment,  -  -  -  446-452 

CHAPTER  XVIII. — PRESIDENT  ARTHUR'S  VETO  OF  THE 
FITZ  JOHN  PORTER  BILL. — Opinion  of  the  Attorney-General 
—Extract  from  the  President's  veto  message  —  Logan's 
course  in  opposing  the  bill  completely  justified,  -  -  453-457 

CHAPTER  XIX.  —LOGAN'S  DOMESTIC  LIFE.— The  romance  of 
his  marriage — The  ability  and  strength  of  character  predomi 
nant  in  Mrs.  Logan — Standing  by  her  husband  and  opposing 
her  relatives — How  she  won  a  fine  team  of  horses  and  a  car 
riage—A  woman's  love — Watching  at  the  bed-side  of  her 
wounded  husband — Patriotism  and  wifely  devotion — Logan's 
family,  -  ....  -  458-464 

CHAPTER  XX. — LOGAN'S  AMBITION, — His  keen  sense  of  honor 
— The  value  of  his  worldly  possessions — Elaine  and  Logan  to 
revivfy  the  spirit  of  '76,  -  465-468 

CHAPTER  XXL— PROMISE  OF  REPUBLICAN  SUCCESS.  What 
we  may  expect  as  a  consequence  of  Elaine's  and  Logan's 
election — How  we  shall  secure  the  trade  of  South  America 
— Quickening  our  industries — Bidding  England  not  to  inter 
fere  with  American  affairs,  -----  469-473 

CHAPTER  XXII.— POLITICAL  SLANDERS.— Gen.  Logan  vindi 
cated  against  the  charge  of  nepotism — What  relatives  hold 
office — Civil  Service  Reform — What  it  means — The  Civil 
Service  Commission  a  humbug — How  it  bleeds  the  Treasury 
and  supports  a  sham — Logan's  opposition  to  all  frauds- 
Singular  coincidences  in  the  lives  of  Elaine  and  Logan,  -  474-478 

CHAPTER  XXIII,— THIRTY  YEARS  OF  POLITICAL    LIFE.— 

How  it  has  been  spent — Logan's  denunciation  of  the  charge 
that  he  has  wronged  the  Zuni  Indians — The  facts  on  which 
the  charge  is  based,  -  -  -  479-484 

CHAPTER  XXIV.— GARFIELD'S  ADMINISTRATION.— What  is 
promised— His  letter  of  acceptance — How  Mr.  Elaine  tried 
to  carry  out  his  policies — His  acts  ratified  by  the  people — 
Elaine  the  rightful  successor  to  Garfield, 

CHAPTER  XXV. — CIRCUMSTANCES  UNDER  WHICH  ALL  THE 
REPUBLICAN  NOMINATIONS  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY  HAVE 
BEEN  MADE. — The  singular  features  connected  with  the 
nominations  of  1884 — Elaine  and  Logan  peculiarly  the  peo 
ples'  choice— Character  of  the  Convention  of  1884 — The 
battle  cry— Flock  to  your  colors.  -  -  496-502 


XNI  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


James  G.  Elaine  (Steel  Plate),  Frontispiece. 

.im  Elaine's  Residence  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  -        10 
oi«l  St.  Peters  Church,  Brownsville,  Pa., 

<e  of  James  G.  Elaine,  -        29 

In.  i.l.-i-t  in  the  Boyhood  of  James  G.  Elaine,      -  35 

r.urial  Place  and  Monument  of  the  Blaines,  -            -        39 

Blaine  Imparting  Instruction  to  her  Son,      -  -          43 

Matilda  Dorsey,  Elaine's  First  Teacher,  -                    47 

BhiiiH-'x  First  Chastisement  at  school,    -  51 

Young  Elaine  Perpetrating  a  Practical  Joke,         -  55 

Incident,  Illustrating  Elaine's  Sympathy,  - 

nding  for  Justice,      -  -            -           63 

•  •dying  his  Dying  Mother's  Blessing,  -  •           -     67 

Capitol  Building  at  Washington—  North  View,      -  -                   101 

l.i«  'k  Military  Academy,     -            -            -  -            -                107 

White  House,  Washington,  East  Front,      -  -                     135 

!I»«»in  of  the  White  House,           -  141 

View  of  the  Monongahela  near  Brownsville,  -           -      169 

in  the  Chicago  Convention  at  the  Moment  of  Elaine's  Nomi 

nation.                                                -  197 

Elaine's  Residence  at  Augnsta,  Me,,          -  -       209 

h-place  of  the  Elder  Blaine,                    ..  -           -     247 

Elaine's  Residence  at  Washington,  259 

iii'Mi  Building,  Chicago,  where  the  Republican  Convention 

N\:I-  hold,              -                                      -  -            -        265 

!  Ikins,  Manager  of  the  Elaine  Forces  at  Chicago,        -  271 

Old  Blalne  HoinesteadT  West  Brownsville,  Pa.,      -  -       281 

M                 ;i  College,  Pa.,  where  Elaine  Graduated,  -                        287 

;il  John  A.  Logan  (Steel  Plate),  -      301 

Birth  Place  of  General  John  A.  Logan,  -  306 

n's  Old  Home  at  Murphysboro,  111.,    -  -      316 

:           of]  Oman's  Home  at  Murphysboro,  -            -            328 

i  .rilling  Speech  in  the  Wommack  Murder  Case,  -  -      341 

;  til--  Fortifications  at  Columbus,   -  345 

>f  Ft.  Henry,                                                -  -      ;r>l 

in  of  Ft.  Donelson,  357 

I     iding  Logan's  Supply  Fleet,  Running  the  Blockade 

Vlckaburg,  -  369 

ling  the  Charge  at  Kenesaw  Mountain,  -  -      377 

ins  in  Camp  before  Atlanta,            -  -           .'          385 


Umy  Entering  Atlanta,      -  ...      393 

Capitol  Buildii  .ingtoii,  South  View,  436 

1'fftrait  *•(  Mi-.  Logan,  .....      451 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Times  are  materially  changing,  producing,  in  fact,  start 
ling  results  daily  bursting  into  view,  but  there  is  nothing 
effete  seen  in  any  of  these  mutations  ;  civilization  hardly 
looks  backward,  but  progresses  steadily,  with  mighty  tread 
and  tireless  energy,  scattering  on  every  side  the  blessings  o1 
a  government  as  nearly  perfect  as  mankind  can  devise,  en 
larging  in  its  several  spheres  in  consonance  with  our  increase 
of  resource  and  population.  Great  men  have  been  among 
the  products  of  our  Republican  cultivation,  great  in  all  the 
attributes  of  manhood  and  statesmanship.  Occasionally 
there  have  been  lapses,  or  interregnums,  of  intellectual  ad 
ministrations,  and  then  again,  appearances  of  geniuses  who 
have  burnished  anew  the  aegis  of  American  liberty  and  given 
the  world  assurance  of  our  manifest  destiny.  It  is  not  mine 
to  recount  the  abilities  of  our  Presidents,  whose  names  and 
deeds  are  conspicuous  on  the  pages  of  the  world's  history , 
but  it  is  mine  to  predict  that  the  name  of  James  G.  Elaine1 
shall  add  its  unsullied  lustre  to  the  brightest  galaxy  of 
American  heroes,  as  citizen,  senator,  statesman  and  Presi 
dent;  the  great  master  mind,  comprehensive  in  its  directing 
power,  forceful  character,  intellectual  strength  and  apprecia-1 
tion  of  public  needs  and  duties ;  the  wise  counsellor,  and 
above  all  the  true  American  who,  knowing  the  right,  dares 
to  maintain  it. 


ttFK   ANb   rUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

mes  GillespicBlainc,  "the  man  from  Maine,"  as  he  has 
been  called,  because  of  his  great  leadership,  is  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  having  been  born  at  the  Indian  Hill  Farm, 
\\  .-liington  county,  January  31,  1830.     The  ancient  stone 
homo  in  which  his  birth  occurred  is  still  standing,  like  a 
:•/  sentinel  of  time,  grim  and  severe  with  the  corrosive 
ks  of  great  age.     It  was  built  by  Mr.  Elaine's  great 
grandfather,  Neal  Gillespie,  in  1778,  and  was,  at  the  date  of 
>M-t ruction,  on  the  very  confines  of  civilization — on  the 
BUM  western  borders.     Indeed,  it  is  affirmed  by  old  tra- 
diti.m-  that  this  was  the  first  house  ever  built  on  the  western 
side  of  the  MoDODgabela  river. 

A  sketch  of  Brownsville,  published  by  the  editor  of  the 

"Three  Towns,"  a  weekly  paper  of  that  place,  last  year, 

M  considerable  information  concerning  the  Gillespies  and 

Blaim -,  who  were  the  original  settlers  of  the  place.     From 

{his  >\^-\c\\  I  take  the  liberty  of  extracting  the  following: 

4*  In  1 774  Ncal  Gillespie,  a  native  of  Ireland,  bought  of  the 

widow  and  son  of  'Indian  Peter/  a  friendly  Indian  who  was 

tin-  lii  -t  owner,  the  'Indian  Hill'  tract  of  land  on  which  the 

t«>\vn  <>f  West  Brownsville,  or  at  least  the  upper  part  of  it, 

IIMW  M  inds.     There  are  three  reports  as  to  the  price  paid  for 

thi-  t  rart.    One  states  that  the  consideration  was  fifty  pounds 

ML:,  <»ne  horse  and  ».  rifle  ;  another  report  declares  that 

the  consideration  was  a  quantity  of  old  iron  and  a  negro, 

:in  1  \  < -i  another  that  the  equivalent  of  eleven  dollars  of  our 

money  was  paid  per  acre.     The  following  is  an  ex- 

iVom  liook  B,  vol.  1,  page  406,  County  records: 

March  ye  3,  1784. 

"Mi  morandomof  a  Bargain  mead  Between  Marey  Fetters 

and    \\  iliiniii,  oldest  son,  and  Neal  Gillespey.      The  agree- 

innit  i-  tlm^,  th.it  \\o  the  above  do  bargain  and  seal  to  sead 

(it-nllr-pir  the  Tru-tof  land  which  we  now  poses  and 

all  UK-  u  iH-iiii  nt>  and  boundories  of  said  Land,  at  forty-five 


HOME  OF  COL,  EPHRAIM  ELAINE,  CARLISLE,  PAo 


JAMES    G.    BLAINK.  21 

Shillings  pr.  Acker,  the  tearm  of  Peaments  the  15th  of  next 
October  fovver  hundred  Pounds  to  be  Paid  in  money  or  mon 
eys  worth  for  this  Peament  two  tons  of  iron  at  teen  pence 
Pr.  pound  and  one  Negro  at  Preasment  of  two  men,  one 
hundred  pound  more  to  be  pead  at  the  same  time  of  this 
Preasement  or  Else  to  Draw  In  trust  for  one  Year,  the  Re 
mainder  of  the  Purches  money  to  be  Pead  in  two  Peaments 
—First  in  the  [year]  1786,  the  Next  the  year  1788,  Each  of 
these  Peaments  to  be  mead  in  October  15th  the  above  Bound 
Marey  Petters  and  William  Petters  asserts  to  meak  the  said 
Neal  Gillespee  a  proper  right  for  said  land  for  which  we  have 
seat  our  hands  and  Seals. 

(Signed) 
"'JOHN  MA  CORTNEY.  her 

'"MAREY  XII  PETTERS, 

mark. 
4 " JOHN   NIXON.  his 

"<  WILLIAM  XIX  PETTERS. 
mark. 

'" Acknowledged  before  THOMAS  CROOKES,  Feb.  25,  1786. 

"Whatever  the  terms  were,  Gillespie  obtained  possession. 
From  him  it  descended  to  his  son,  Neal  Gillespie,  Jr.,  and 
from  him  it  passed  largely  into  the  hands  of  the  Elaine  family, 
and  from  them  to  its  many  present  owners.  The  family  has 
now  entirely  disappeared. 

"Ephriam  Blaine  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  War 
and  afterwards  sheriff  of  Cumberland  County,  Pa.  His  son 
James  came  to  Brownsville  in  1804  and  engaged  in  mer 
chandising.  He  was  also  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  several 
years.  He  moved  to  Sewickley  from  Brownsville,  and  from 
Sewickley  to  the  vicinity  of  Washington,  Pa.,  where  he  died. 
He  left  seven  children,  of  whom  only  two  are  now  living. 
Ephraim  Lyon  Blaine,  the  one  of  these  in  whom  we  are  most 
interested,  was  born  Feb.  28,  1796.  He  was  graduated  at 
Washington  College  and  married  Maria,  daughter  of  Neal 
Gillespie,  Jr.  '  He  thus  became  proprietor  of  a  large  part  of 
the  Indian  Hill  tract,  purchased  by  his  father-in-law  from 
the  widow  and  son  of  'Indian  Peter.'  He  built  several 


LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

houses  in  West  Brownsville,  and  lived  in  at  least  two  of  them, 
which  has  given  rise  to  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
birth-place  of  his  now  distinguished  son,  the  Hon.  James  G. 
Blaine.  Some  say  that  he  was  born  in  the  stone  house  now 
familiarly  known  as  the  'Blaine  House/  in  1830,  while  others 
cl-iim  that  he  was  born  in  the  large  brick  building,  formerly 
used  as  a  hotel,  in  1828.  This  latter  building  is  the  largest 
in  West  Brownsville,  and  is  now  occupied  as  a  tenement  by 
a  half-dozen  families.  In  1831,  Mr.  Blaine  laid  out  the  orig 
inal  town  of  West  Brownsville.  In  1842,  he  was  elected 
Prothonotary  of  Washington  County.  He  died  June  28, 
1  -00,  and  his  remains  lie  in  the  Catholic  cemetery  in  Browns 
ville.  James  G.  Blaine  was  never  a  resident  of  West 
Brownsville,  after  his  childhood  days.  He  was  graduated 
at  Washington  College,  and  not  long  thereafter  removed  to 
the  State  of  Maine." 

HIS   ANCESTORS. 

Indian  Hill  Farm  is  what  is  now  the  town  of  West 
Brownsville,  Washington  county.  Mr.  Blaine  is  therefore  a 
Maine  man  by  adoption.  On  this  farm  his  great-grandfather, 
the  elder  Neal  Gillespie,  had  settled  before  the  breaking  out 
of  the  Revolutionary  war.  His  ancestors  were  of  noted 
Scotch-Irish  stock  and  were  among  the  pioneer  settlers  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  ago  in  the  great  limestone  valley  of 
the  Keystone  State.  They  were  among  those  who  founded  the 
village  of  Carlisle,  and  stood  in  high  repute.  The  old  stone 
Presbyterian  church,  whose  hallowed  walls  over  a  century 
•go  were  first  dedicated  to  religious  worship,  still  stands,  a 
spared  and  reserved  monument  to  the  ravages  of  time.  Not 
only  did  the  colonial  ancestors  of  Mr.  Blaine  attend  service 
in  this  sacred  edifice — to  whose  creation  none  contributed 
more  liberally  than  they — but  also  their  descendants  down 
to  tho  fifth  generation,  of  which  the  subject  of  this  biography 


OLD  ST.  PETERS  CATHOLIC  CHURCH,  WEST  BROWNSVILLE,  PA., 
WHERE  THE  ELAINE  FAMILY  WORSHIPPED. 

(Photographed  and  engraved  expressly  for  this  work.) 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  25 

is  one — have  been  constant  worshipers  within  its  venerabel 
walls. 

Near  by  this  church  is  the  old-fashioned  house  where 
Col.  Ephraim  Blaine,  the  paternal  great-grandfather  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  lived,  and  the  building  is  standing  on  the  same  spot, 
an  object  of  interest  to  visitors.  Col.  Ephraim  Blaine  was 
a  native  of  Scotland,  having  fought  with  Prince  Charlie  at 
Culloden  in  the  war  of  1745.  He  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  war,  belonging  to  the  Pennsylvania  line,  and  died  at 
Carlisle,  Penn.,  in  1808.  His  services  were  gallant  and 
patriotic. 

Living  on  his  princely  estate  of  "  Middlesex,"  in  the 
county  of  Cumberland,  at  the  time  the  Revolution  was 
inaugurated,  he  at  once  offered  his  personal  services  and  his 
large  means  to  the  patriot  cause.  He  was  forthwith  com 
missioned  by  the  Continental  Congress  as  a  Colonel,  and 
was  attached  to  the  Pennsylvania  line  of  troops,  and  did  not 
"  ground  arms"  until  the  contest  was  over,  and  the  victory 
won.  It  happened  from  the  outset  of  his  service,  that  he 
was  thrown  much  in  contact  with  General  Washington,  and 
the  result  was  a  warm  friendship  between  the  two,  which 
manifested  itself  in  a  cordial  correspondence  through  a  period 
of  more  than  fifteen  years — many  of  Washington's  letters 
being  still  in  the  possession  of  Colonel  Elaine's  descendants. 

Owing  to  his  own  marked  and  meritorious  services  both 
in  "camp  and  field,"  and  aided  perhaps  by  the  personal 
friendship  of  Washington,  Col.  Blaine  was  promoted  to  the 
very  important  post  of  "Commissary  General  of  the  North 
ern  Department"  in  the  year  1778,  about  the  time  that  the 
distinguished  Gen.  Wadsworth  was  appointed  to  a  similar 
rank  in  the  Southern  Department.  In  this  enlarged  and 


2<J  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

most  responsible  sphere  of  duty  Col.  Elaine  won  imperish 
able  laurels.  The  district  over  which  he  was  thus  made 
•»  General  of  Commissariat"  extended  from  the  Maryland 
line  northward,  including  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  and  New  England,  and  it  was  to  his  great  energy  and 
oftentimes  to  the  means  which  he  had  at  his  individual  and 
personal  influence  to  command,  that  the  "Patriot  Army" 
was  kept  from  want  and  starvation.  The  large  quantities 
of  army  supplies  which  Col.  Blaine  negotiated  for  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  at  one  time  (Jan.,  1780)  the  Su 
preme  Executive  Council  of  Pennsylvania  drew  a  single 
warrant  in  his  favor  for  one  million  of  dollars  to  reimburse  him 
for  advances  which  his  own  exertions  and  his  own  means  had 
provided;  and  at  another  time  a  warrant  for  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  was  credited  to  him  by  the  same  author 
ity  in  payment  of  similar  obligations.  During  the  "  dark 
winter"  at  Valley  Forge,  the  most  critical  and  trying 
period  perhaps  in  the  whole  seven  years'  struggle,  the 
American  army  was  left  atone  time  almost  entirely  depend 
ent  on  Col.  Blaine's  efforts,  and  the  faithful  and  heroic 
manner  in  which  he  discharged  his  duties  at  that  period  was 
always  spoken  of  in  terms  of  highest  praise  by  Washington. 
Col.  Blaine  was  with  Washington  in  several  of  the  most 
critical  epochs  in  the  long  struggle  for  our  liberties,  and 
was  among  the  most  "tried,  true,  and  trusted,"  to  the  last. 
At  tlu»  close  of  the  Revolution  he  retired  to  his  estates  at 
"Middlesex,"  which  had  become  greatly  impaired  by  his 
_r  absence,  though  they  were  still  magnificent  in  their  ex 
tent  and  resources.  Here  he  resided  for  more  than  a  quar 
ter  »f  a  century  after  the  war,  in  true  manorial  dignity  and 
hospitality;  entertaining  his  numerous  visitors  in  a  style  of 
hbrrality  suited  to  his  social  rank  and  public  position,  and 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  27 

admirably  illustrating  the  character  of  the  Pennsylvania 
gentleman  of  the  * 'olden  time."  It  was  at  his  house  that 
President  Washington  and  suite  were  entertained  when 
they  journeyed  to  the  interior  of  the  State  on  that  eventful 
expedition,  called  out  by  the  Whiskey  Insurrection  of  the 
Western  counties  in  1794.  During  Washington's  presiden 
cy,  Col.  Blaine  spent  many  of  his  winters  in  Philadelphia, 
forming  one  member  of  that  "Republican  Court"  which 
surrounded  and  gave  eclat  and  dignity  to  the  social  rule  of 
our  first  and  greatest  Chief  Magistrate.  Col.  Elaine's  son, 
James  Blaine,  went  abroad  in  1791  as  an  attache  to  one  of 
the  American  embassies,  and  was  made,  a  few  years  after, 
the  bearer  to  this  country  of  [the  celebrated  "Jay  Treaty," 
which  was  the  cause  of  such  an  angry  Congressional  con 
troversy  immediately  after  its  reception,  and  which  re 
sulted  in  the  personal  estrangement  from  Washington  of 
some  who  had  previously  been  reckoned  as  among  his  most 
devoted  political  friends.  James  Blaine,  at  the  time  of  his 
return  from  Europe,  was  considered  to  be  the  most  accom 
plished  and  finest  looking  gentleman  in  Philadelphia — then 
the  center  of  fashion,  elegance,  and  learning  on  this  Conti 
nent.  His  reputation  as  a  model  gentleman  was  honorably 
sustained  through  life.  He  died  in  Washington  county, 
Pennsylvania,  whither  he  removed  after  the  death  of  his 
father.  It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  Col.  Blaine  was 
one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  of 
the  "Cincinnati." 

The  domestic  and  family  history  of  Col.  Blaine  were 
quite  as  remarkable  and  interesting  as  his  public  career  was 
honorable  and  patriotic.  Shortly  after  the  war  was  over  he 
lost  his  first  wife,  who  was  a  Miss  Galbraith,  of  a  well- 
known  Scotch  family.  He  passed  some  five  years  as  a 


>s  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

widower,  and  his  second  marriage  was  somewhat,  singular 
arid  romantic,  to  say  the  least.  In  the  town  of  Carlisle,  near 
which  his  estate  of  "  Middlesex"  lay,  one  Judge  Duncan  was 
among  the  most  prominent  citizens — a  man  of  social  rank, 
and  high  spirit,  and  some  years  the  junior  of  Col.  Elaine. 
A  personal  difficulty  happened  between  Judge  Duncan  and 
a  lawyer  of  the  Cumberland  County  Bar,  named  Lamberton, 
and  the  result  was  that  a  challenge  passed,  and  was  ac 
cepted.  The  second  of  Judge  Duncan  was  James  Elaine,  the 
son  of  Col.  Elaine,  already  alluded  to.  The  issue  of  the 
duel  was  the  instant  death  of  Judge  Duncan,  who  was  shot 
with  a  rifle  ball  directly  in  the  forehead.  And  now  for  the 
singular  sequel.  A  few  years  elapsed,  and  Col.  Elaine 
married  Judge  Duncan's  widow — the  widow  of  the  man  for 
whom  his  son  had  acted  as  second  in  the  duel  which  proved 
fatal  to  him.  This  lady  survived  Col.  Elaine  a  long  number 
of  years,  and  after  his  death  resided  in  Philadelphia.  Her 
residence  was  one  of  the  elegant  mansions  on  Walnut  street, 
west  of  Twelfth,  and  here  she  lived  in  a  style  of  true  ele 
gance  and  social  distinction  until  she  attained  the  ripe  age 
of  ninety.  She  died  in  1850,  and  was  buried  in  a  family  lot 
at  Laurel  Hill.  The  descendants  and  collateral  connections 
of  Colonel  Elaine  in  Pennsylvania,  and  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  Union,  are  quite  numerous.  In  Pennsylvania  the 
family  is  intimately  interwoven  with  the  Lyons,  the  Eus- 
sels,  the  Ewings,  the  Alexanders,  the  Andersons,  the  Reeds, 
the  Walkers,  the  Gillespies,  and  numerous  other  branches  of 
the  old  Pennsylvania  stock.  The  son  of  Col.  Elaine's 
second  wife,  Dr.  Stephen  Duncan,  of  Natchez,  Miss.,  was 
widely  known  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  planters  of  the 
South,  his  estate  being  reckoned  by  » millions,  while  he  WMS 
otherwise  known  as  the  most  high-minded,  philanthropic, 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  31 

id  Christian  of  men.  Robert  J.  Walker,  once  Governor  of 
Kansas,  and  so  distinguished  as  a  Democratic  statesman  be- 
nged  to  the  same  stock,  being  a  nephew,  we  believe,  of 
ol.  Elaine's  wife.  Hon.  A.  L.  Russell,  at  one  time  Secre- 
,ry  of  the  State,  were  grand-nephews  of  Col.  Elaine.  Hon. 
)hn  H.  Ewing,  former  Representative  in  Congress  from 
ic  Washington  district,  married  a  grand-daughter  of  Col. 
laine ;  and  Robert  C.  Walker,  Esq.,  well  known  in  Penn- 
dvania,  and  at  one  time  connected  with  the  Agricultural 
ureau  at  Washington,  was  connected  by  a  similar  tie.  A 
ranch  of  the  family  is  to  be  found  in  South  Carolina,  in- 
irmarried  with  the  Wheatons  of  that  State ;  another  branch 

settled  in  New  Jersey ;  another  in  Missouri ;  another  in 
>wa;  and  another  in  Arkansas.  The  male  members  of  the 
tood,  bearing  the  family  names,  are  scarce.  At  one  time, 
nee  the  death  of  Col.  Elaine,  he  had  five  namesakes  among 
is  relatives,  but  not  one  of  them  now  survives.  The  name 
self,  therefore,  belongs  to  comparatively  few,  while  the 
lood  flows  in  the  veins  of  a  very  large  number. 

Mr.  Elaine's  maternal  grandfather,  Neal  Gillespie,  in 
hose  honor  Mr.  Elaine  received  the  name  Gillespie,  was  a 
,rge  landed  proprietor  in  the  Monongahela  valley,  where 
e  had  settled  and  lived  a  life  of  ease. 

Mr.  Elaine's  father,  Ephraim  Lyon  Elaine,  as  the  grand- 
)n  of  the  Revolutionary  hero,  was,  in  his  time,  one  of  the 
irgest  landed  proprietors  in  Western  Pennsylvania.  Had 
is  estate  been  preserved  it  would  now  be  worth  many  mil- 
ons  of  dollars.  His  father  was  born  in  Carlisle,  and  after 
xtended  foreign  travels  settled  there  where  Ephraim  was 
orn  and  reared.  He  was  known  in  the  community  as 
Squire  Elaine  and  was  married  to  Miss  Maria  Gillespie,  by 
rhom  he  had  seven  children,  five  boys  and  two  girls. 


32  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Their  names  were  Epbriam,  James  Gillespie,  Neal,  Rob 
and  John,  and  Mary  and  Eliza.  Ephriam  is  dead  and  sc 
Mary . 

In  1842  Mr.  Elaine's  father,  having  been  defeated 
party  caucus  for  nomination  to  Congress,  was  elected  by  t 
Whig  party  prothonotary  of  the  court,  an  office  then  of  mu 
greater  importance  than  now.  He  was  a  man  much  i 
gpected  and  liked  for  his  generosity  and  hospitality.  ] 
also  invested  largely  in  Pennsylvania  lands,  but  these  prov 
generally  unremunerative  and  seriously  impaired  1 
finances. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  33 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  boyhood  of  James  G.  Elaine  was  not  specially  dif 
ferent  from  that  of  other  boys ;  he  had  his  romances  and 
disappointments,  and  participated  in  adventures  which 
usually  happen  to  spirited  youths.  Precociousness  and  mis 
chief  were  prominent  traits  in  his  character,  and  many  sto 
ries  are  still  related  of  him  by  the  old  citizens  of  Browns 
ville  and  vicinity.  He  was  passionately  fond  of  hunting, 
but  the  solicitude  of  his  mother  prevented  him  from  using 
fire-arms,  so  that  he  was  limited  to  dogs  and  a  small  axe  for 
means  to  capture  game.  Coons  and  rabbits  were  therefore 
the  object  of  his  pursuit,  and  these  he  followed  dilligently, 
both  by  day  and  night. 

It  is  told  by  the  village  gossips  that  on  one  occasion,  in 
company  with  his  "chum,"  a  boy  of  equal  age,  he  went  far 
into  the  forest  with  his  trusty  dogs,  on  a  coon  hunt;  it  was 
late  in  the  evening  when  the  two  started  and  it  had  become 
very  much  later  before  the  resounding  notes  of  his  dogs, 
baying  in  the  distance,  gave  evidence  that  they  had  "treed" 
jsome  kind  of  game.  Reaching  the  spot  the  boys  found 
I  their  dogs  leaping  and  barking  up  a  large  tree,  and  after  a 
(searching  look  through  the  branches  they  saw  a  large  coon 
jhovering  close  to  a  fork,  nearly  forty  feet  from  the  earth. 
It  would  have  been  foolish  to  attempt  to  fell  the  tree  with  the 
small  axe  which  they  carried,  so  young  Blaine  quickly  made 
up  his  mind  to  climb  for  the  game.  By  dint  of  great  perse 
verance  he  managed  to  reach  very  near  the  lower  branch, 
which  was  full  twenty  feet  from  the  ground,  when  attempt 
ing  to  rest  his  weight  upon  a  short,  dead  sprout,  the  treach 
erous  support  gave  way  and  he  fell  with  much  violence  to 


34  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  earth.  The  fall  rendered  him  unconscious  for  sever 
minutes,  and  upon  recovering  his  mind  he  found  his  rig! 
hip  so  badly  injured  that  walking  was  impossible.  It  wi 
now  long  after  darkness  had  set  in,  but  the  two  boys  hi 
built  a  tire  to  aid  them  in  locating  the  coon,  so  that  th 
wise  precaution  served  them  greatly  in  the  extremity  whic 
had  now  befallen. 

Young  Elaine's  companion  was  fickle  hearted,  and  whil 
not  sanctioning  the  idea  of  remaining  out  all  night  was  lot 
to  proceed  alone  to  town  for  aid.  Something,  howeve 
must  be  done,  and  necessity  demanded  that  the  other  be 
should  return  to  Brownsville  and  notify  young  Blaine 
parents  of  the  accident.  With  many  misgivings  he  : 
length  set  out  for  town,  but  fear  and  darkness  caused  hi 
to  lose  his  way,  so  that  it  was  after  midnight  before  h 
communicated  the  news  to  Mrs.  Blaine.  With  a  mother 
anxiety  she  alarmed  the  household  and  could  scarcely  be  r< 
strained  from  rushing  off  alone  to  find  and  succor  her  so 
whom  she  believed  must  either  be  dead,  or  very  dangerous! 
injured.  A  team  was  hastily  prepared  and  several  pe 
9OD8,  who  had  been  notified,  set  out  to  find  the  sufferer,  whi< 
iraa  by  no  means  an  easy  matter  to  do.  It  was  nearly  da; 
liirht  before  young  Blaine  was  found,  as  the  dogs  had  le 
him  and  gone  home.  When  Mrs.  Blaine  saw  him  he  wi 
sound  asleep  by  the  foot  of  the  tree  from  which  he  had  fa 
len,  and  with  a  scream  she  sprang  towards  him  feeling  su 
that  her  first  dread  must  be  realized,  but  he  was  quick! 
anniM-cl  and  borne  home,  where  he  recovered  after  a  fe 
•  lay's  treatment  with  liniments  and  plasters,  but  his  huntin 
adventures  thereafter  were  very  few. 

A  correspondent  who  visited  Brownsville  since  M 
Blaim-'>  nomination,  and  who  interviewed  several  of  the  o! 


INCIDENT  IN  THE  BOYHOOD  OP  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  37 

settlors  in  and  about  the  place,  has  written  the  following 
reminiscences: 

"  'I  stood  to-day  where  Mr.  Elaine's  candidacy  was  not  a 
subject  of  current  comment,  beside  two  old  graves  in  this 
village  that  are  in  the  shadow  of  the  little  Catholic  Church, 
that  quickly  recalled  to  me  Longfellow's  beautiful  lines  on 
old  St.  David's  Church  at  Radnor.  The  marble  that  marked 
them  was  much  newer  than  the  mounds,  and  the  surround 
ings  impressed  me  with  the  thought  that  a  dutiful  and  rev 
erent  son  had,  years  after,  when  means  and  opportunity 
came,  that  were  wanting  when  death  called  father  and 
mother,  placed  a  fitting  monument  to  mark  the  spot  where 
they  slept.  It  is  a  plain,  unpretentious  stone  that  marks 
these  graves,  and  it  was  the  names  only  that  attracted  my  at 
tention.  They  were  those  of  Ephraim  L.  Elaine  and  Maria 
Gillespie  Elaine. 

"  'Who  were  these  two  people  in  life?'  I  asked  of  an  old 
gentleman  who  had  wandered  along  with  me  to  this  quiet 
city  of  the  dead. 

"  'Why,  they  were  the  father  and  mother  of  James  G. 
Elaine.  I  knew  them  both  well.  Eph.  Elaine  and  I  went  to 
school  together.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  this  town, 
and  was  'Squire  here  for  many  a  year.  He  was  elected 
Prothonotary  of  the  county  in  1842,  and  moved  to  Washing 
ton,  the  county  scat.  He  married  Maria,  a  daughter  of 
old  Neal  Gillespie,  the  smartest  man  in  this  whole  section, 
and  from  his  people  James  Gillespie  Elaine  derives  his  mid 
dle  name.  The  Gillespies  were  among  the  most  prominent 
families  in  the  State.  The  seal  of  nature's  nobility  was 
stamped  upon  them,  one  and  all.  The  men  were  brave  and 
stalwart;  as  strong  in  character,  too,  as  they  were  stout  of 
limb.  The  women  were  very  handsome,  and  carried  them 
selves  as  proudly  as  though  the  blood  of  a  hundred  earls 
was  coursing  through  their  veins.  The  beauty  of  old  Mrs. 
Elaine,  James'  mother,  passed  into  a  proverb.  Even  in  her 
decrepit  age  she  preserved  much  of  her  early  attractiveness, 
and  her  eye  was  like  a  hawk's,  as  clear  and  piercing  then  as 


.^  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

in  the  days  of  her  budding  womanhood.  This  was  a  peculi 
arity  of  her  family,  and  she  transmitted  it  to  all  her  chil 
dren.  The  Gillespies  were  ardent,  intense  Catholics,  and 
made  their  religion  the  leading  feature  of  their  lives.  Nea 
Gillespie  owned  a  good  deal  of  land  about  here,  and  Eph. 
niaine  built  the  brick  house  you  see  yonder,  or  a  portion  of 
it,  after  his  marriage  with  Miss  Gillespie.  Their  first 
child,  James,  was  born  in  1830.  I  remember  him  very  well 
when  ho  was  a  lad  and  used  to  paddle  about  on  the  river 
and  make  mud  pies  along  its  banks.  He  was  a  bright  lad. 
"«I  remember  one  little  story  about  him,  which  I  often 
heard  in  those  days,  and  which  is  interesting  as  showing  how 
truly  in  his  case  the  child  was  father  to  the  man.  When  he 
walnut  a  little  toddler,  so  to  speak,  some  laborers  were 
engaged  digging  a  well  on  his  father's  premises.  The  fu 
ture  statesman  was  caught  one  morning  peering  down  in  the 
tvation,  and  one  of  the  men,  with  the  idea  of  frighten 
ing  him  and  thus  preventing  him  from  again  putting  himself 
in  danger,  thrust  his  shovel  toward  him  and  made  all  sorts 
of  ugly  faces.  Jim  ran  away,  but  only  to  nurse  his  anger 
and  await  an  opportunity  for  revenge.  Venturing  to  the 
\\cll  a  day  or  two  after  he  had  been  driven  away,  he  found 
the  men  working  away  at  the  bottom.  Improving  the  opix>r- 
t unity,  he  seized  a  clod  of  earth  and  hurled  it  with  all  his 
little  might  full  at  the  head  of  his  unsuspecting  enemy,  with 
the  consolatory  remark:  "'There,  take  that.'"  Clod  followed 
•  lod  in  fast  succession,  with  accompanying  expletives,  until 
the  men  were  fairly  beside  themselves  with  rage,  and  with 
the  fear  that  the  desperate  child  might  take  it  into  his  head 
t<>  n -e  some  of  the  stones  lying  about  him  as  messengers  of 
wrath  more  effective  than  mere  lumps  of  earth.  Their 
>h<>nN,  however,  brought  his  mother  to  the  scene,  and  the 
little  avenger  was  unceremoniously  hustled  off  to  the  house. 
Thai  wa-  the  old  blood  asserting  itself.  A  Gillespie  or  a 
Blame  n.  ver  turned  his  back  upon  a  friend  or  foe. 

'•That's  the  new  packet,  James  G.  Blaino,that  runs  from 
hero  t<»  Pitt-burg.  The  two  people  whosleep  in  this  grave 
yard  little  thought  when  they  died  that  they'd  have  a  son 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  41 

big  enough  to  have  a  packet  named  for  him.  They  died 
when  Jim  was  young,  and  they  didn't  leave  anything  for 
him  to  start  with,  either.  Eph.  Blaine  was  a  rich  man  once, 
His  grandfather  left  him  some  $50,000,  but  he  spent  it  hav 
ing  a  good  time.  He  was  not  a  money  saver,  but  believed 
in  enjoying  the  world  as  he  lived.  He  used  to  drive  fine 
horses,  and  drive  'em  tandem,  too.  Old  Neal  Gillespie  used 
to  call  him  "  My  gig  and  tandem  son-in-law."  TheGilles- 
pies  weren't  so  slow  either,  but  Eph.  Blaine  led  'em  all  in 
this  country.  It's  no  wonder  Jim  Blaine  is  smart.  He 
comes  of  good  stock  on  both  sides.  All  the  Gillespies  were 
smart.  Neal  Gillespie  was  the  biggest  brained  man  in  all 
this  country.' 

'"Do  the  Blaine' s  or  any  of  the  relations  own  the  old  home 
stead?' 

4 "No,  indeed  !  It's  long  since  passed  into  strange  hands. 
There  was  little  of  either  the  Blaine  or  the  Gillespie  es 
tate  left  when  the  settlement-day  came.  The  children  all 
had  to  begin  new.  None  of  either  family  live  about  here 
now.  It  is  a  queer  section  of  country  in  which  to  have 
found  the  homes  of  two  such  families  as  the  Blaines  and  the 
Gillespies.  Both  strong  houses,  both  fond  of  the  best  things 
of  this  life,  both  educated  and  brainy.  Blaine  sprang  from 
revolutionary  stock.  His  great-grandfather  was  a  distin 
guished  officer  in  the  revolution.  He  was  a  rich  man,  and 
lived  in  Cumberland  County,  above  Carlisle.  He  left  James 
Blaine,  the  grandfather,  and  Ephraim  Blaine,  the  father  of 
the  man  of  whom  I  am  now  writing,  rich.  The  story  goes 
that  both  spent  their  money  in  having  a  good  time.  The 
grand  father  spent  many  years  in  Europe,  and  returned  to 
this  country  only  when  he  had  become  penniless.  There 
seems  to  have  been  good  feeling  from  the  first  between  the 
Blaine  and  Gillespie  families,  and  there  seems  to  have  been 
a  special  care  to  intermingle  the  family  names  as  each  son 
was  born,' 

"The  old  man  whom  I  encountered  in  the  first  part  of  this 
story,  told  me  that  nearly  every  son  in  the  Blaine  family,  as 
in  the  Gillespie,  wore  the  family  name  in  some  part  of  his 


I.I*. 

autograph.     The  Gille-pie    family    -  to  run  more  to 

ri  boys,  and  it  seemed  to  be   ti;  fortui, 

Fink  th*-ir  fortunes  with  strong  men.     The  daughter 

r  in  age  to  Maria,  who  married  Ephraim   A.  Blaine,  was 
wedded  to  the  famous  Tom  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  when  he  v. 
:  lawyer  in  Lancaster,  Pa.     That's  how   he   be 
e  of  James  G.  Blaine,  and  the  names  of  Blaine  and  \ 
became  joined.     There  is  a  tradition  here  that  when  old; 
.1  Kwing  was  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Blaine  applied  to 
him  for  a  clerkship  and  the  old  man  sent  him  to  Kentucky 
irn  an  honest  living  teaching  school.      'I  Delation 

ie  name  of  Ewing  with  that  of  Blaine  has  give: 
y  that  the  E  wing  family  of  Ohio  helped   Jame- 
<>  an  education.     I  might  as  well  destroy  this  fiction 
by  telling  the  facts.     A  short  drive  brought  me  to  Washing 
ton,  the  county  seat  of  this  county,  and  one  of  the  first  men 
•t  was  Major  John  H.  Ewing,  an  old  veteran,  L 
-score  years.    Said  he,  I  married  the  sister  of  Ephraim 
L    Blaine.     He  and  I  went  to  school  together  over  in  yonder 
»-ge,  ami  I  knew  him  nearly  all  his  life.  He  was  a  lender 
in  the  mischief  of  the  school,  and  fond  of  all  the  good  th 
of  thi-  life.  He  was  the  handsomest  man  I  ever  saw,  and  he 
:  a  wife  that  was  a  match  for  him.     She  was  one  of  the 
»lest  women  I  ever  knew.     She  inherited  all  the 
traits  of  character  and  strength  of  mind  for  which  t\. 
pies  were  noted.     So,  you  see,  Blaine  sprang  from  the 
of  *tock  on  both  sides.     His  father  was  justice  of  the  peace 

-t  Brownville  for  a  number  of  year-,  and  af 
wards  Prothonotary  of  the  county.  He  was  • 
and  came  here  to  live.  James  G.  was  only  about  twe! 

i,  and  almost  every  middle-aged   man  you   meet  on 

re  remembers  all  about  him.' 
row,  the  editor  of  one  of  the  vi  1  la %e  papers. 
*»-  as-mate,  speaks  tbos  of  his  school  V<~, 

i  in  the  clasi  of '47,  when  he  was  on! 

m.     V\  V  were 
hool  but 
cif  waaa  great  :  ,n  the  b 


MRS.   ELAINE  IMPARTING  INSTRUCTION    '>  O 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  45 

the  town.  He  was  not  noted  as  a  leader  in  his  class.  He 
could  learn  his  lessons  too  easily.  He  had  the  most  remark 
able  memory  of  any  boy  in  school,  and  could  commit  and 
retain  his  lessons  without  difficulty.  He  never  demonstrated 
in  his  youth,  except  by  his  own  wonderful  memory,  any  of 
the  great  powers  as  a  debater  and  thinker  that  he  has  since 
given  evidence  of.' 

"Almost  his  first  occupation  after  graduating  was  as  a  teacher 
in  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum  in  Philadelphia.  Why  he 
went  from  there  to  Kentucky  to  teach  school  has  been  a 
question  often  asked,  but  never  answered.  There  is  a  tra 
dition  here  that  there  is  but  one  being  who  knows.  Like 
other  boys,  he  had  his  friendships  and  his  loves,  and  it  would 
be  strange  if  he  had  grown  up — for  he  is  said  to  have  been 
as  handsome  a  boy  as  he  is  a  man — without  leaving  some  im 
pression  upon  the  hearts  of  the  maidens  of  the  neighborhood. 
If  there  is  one  person. who  can  tell,  and  there  is,  it  has  been 
and  doubtless  will  be  forever  kept  as  a  sealed  book  so  far  as 
the  details  are  concerned.  It  was  one  of  those  youthful 
misunderstandings  that  often  come  to  two  people  who  hope 
to  start  out  on  the  voyage  of  life  together  and  are  separated 
by  an  angry  sea  before  they  meet.  There  is  not  even  a 
suggestion  as  to  which  of  the  two  was  at  fault  for  the  part 
ing  of  the  ways  that  led  their  life's  journeys  into  different 
-pailis^  The  party  most  disappointed  has  never  wedded,  but 
has  rather  devoted  her  life  to  self-denying  charity  for  twenty 
years,  and  by  the  irony  of  fate  in  the  Capital  of  the  Nation 
has  she  followed  the  path  of  an  undeviating  Christian  life, 
devoted  to  careful  attention  upon  suffering  humanity,  doubt 
less  watching  with  a  careful  eye  his  steadily-advancing  steps, 
and  perhaps  often  sitting  under  the  spell  of  his  eloquence 
without  his  ever  knowing  that  the  being  whose  presence  was 
c-^e  the  chief  charm  of  life  was  even  living." 


46  LIFK    AND    ITBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  III. 

In  the  days  of  Elaine's  boyhood,  facilities  for  schooling 
were  very  meager,  confined  generally  to  subscription  schools 
that  usually  had  but  small  attendance.  Mrs.  Blaine  being  a 
woman  of  excellent  culture  herself,  preferred  to  instruct  her 
own  children,  rather  than  trust  their  education  to  the  in 
different  means  afforded  about  the  village  of  Brownsville.  As 
her  cares  multiplied,  however,  by  increase  in  her  family — 
James  being  the  first-born — and  as  Mrs.  Matilda  Dorsey,  an 
old  schoolmate,  had  opened  a  subscription  school  in  the  vicin 
ity,  Mrs.  Blaine  decided  to  enter  James  as  a  pupil.  The 
storie<  which  Mrs.  Dorsey  (who  is  still  living  in  Browns 
ville,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty -two  years)  tells  of  her 
experience  with  the  young  hopeful  are  very  amusing  now 
in  the  light  of  events  which  have  since  transpired.  Mrs. 
Por-cy  delights  in  relating  reminiscences  of  olden  times  and 
tells,  with  a  hearty  relish,  the  following  story  of  how  she 
whipped  Jim  Blaine,  the  most  mischievous  boy  in  her  school. 

She  relates  that  James  became  a  pupil  under  her  when  he 
was  eight  years  old ;  at  that  time  he  was  a  ruddy  cheeked 
lad,  chock-full  of  frolic  and  harmless  mischief;  though  very 
yoimirhe  was  a  leader  among  much  older  boys,  and  as  he 
learned  his  lessons  almost  without  an  effort  he  had  plenty  of 
time  for  conceiving  plans  calculated  to  amuse  himself  at  the 
•xpmso  of  others.  It  was  during  summer,  when  black 
berries  were  ripe,  and  it  chanced  that  near  the  school-house 
there  w.-,s  a  pvat  patch  laden  with  the  luscious  fruit.  In 
thU  Jim,  u  M,-..  Doreey  still  calls  him,  was  wont  to  linger, 
tilling  his  internal  emnpartnu'nts  with  berries,  and  gathering 


3  t; 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE,  49 

others  with  which  to  agitate  the  school.  In  the  lazy  days 
pupils,  then  as  now,  would  often  doze  off  to  sleep,  and 
sometimes  even  the  good-natured  school-marm  herself  would 
entertain  the  drowsy  god.  Jim  was  too  full  of  mischief  to 
be  affected  by  summer's  heat  or  winter's  cold,  and  in  the 
quiet  moments  of  repose  which  others  indulged  he  would 
slyly  draw  forth  a  berry  and  *'  plump"  some  sleepy  victim. 
With  a  start  the  sleeper  would  awaken,  only  to  meet  the 
gaze  of  giggling  boys  and  girls,  whose  merriment  could  not 
be  restrained.  This  tended  to  demoralize  the  order  which 
Mrs.  Dorsey  sought  to  maintain,  and  learning  that  Jim 
Elaine  was  the  cause,  she  gave  him  a  severe  reprimand,  by 
word,  and  forbade  his  again  entering  the  blackberry  patch, 
telling  him  at  the  same  time  that  the  place  was  full  of  cop 
perhead  snakes.  It  was  only  a  few  days  after  receiving 
this  warning — doubtless  the  following  day — when  Jim,  re 
gardless  of  snakes  or  fear  of  other  enemies,  again  replenished 
his  pockets  with  berries,  to  renew  the  amusing  bombard 
ment.  It  was  a  dreadfully  warm  day,  so  enervating  that  Mrs. 
Dorsey  herself  could  not  resist  the  drowsy  feeling  which 
stole  upon  her;  in  short,  she  dozed  ;  a  gentle  doze,  sporting 
in  summer  dreams  so  soothing,  unconscious  of  flies,  or  other 
annoyances.  Her  face  was  towards  Jim,  but  she  saw  him 
not,  and  she  reckoned  nothing  of  time  or  circumstance.  Jim 
studied  the  distance  a  moment  to  get  his  range,  and  then, 
with  the  precision  of  a  sharp-shooter,  let  fly  from  his  thumb 
a  swift  berry  that  lighted  with  force  and  appalling  effect 
squarely  upon  the  point  of  Mrs.  Dorsey's  nose.  The  aim 
surprised  Jim  himself,  but  not  half  as  much  as  the  final  ef 
fect  did.  Mrs.  Dorsey  awakened  with  a  spring  from  her 
chair  that  did  credit  to  her  marvellous  activity;  a  sharp,  de 
cisive  awakening  that  indicated  trouble,  too.  Instinct  seemed 


,r)()  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

to  ifll  her  that  Mm  Elaine  had  done  the  mischief,  notwith 
standing  hi-  demure  looks  of  infantile  innocence. 

"Jim  Hlaine  !  walk  up  here,"  were  the  words  which  Mrs. 
Dor-ey  addressed  to  him.  Prone  to  obedience  under  the 
iri -im  eye  of  necessity,  Jim  marched  up  and  stood  with 
dejected  look  before  his  teacher 

"  I  >id  you  shoot  that  berry?  " 

Jim  made  no  response  for  a  while,  but  looked  slowly  about 
him,  while  a  merry  twinkle  lighted  his  face  that  he  vainly 
tried  to  conceal. 

11  Did  you  shoot  that  berry?"  again  Mrs.  Dorsey  fiercely 
demanded. 

11  No'm,"  replied  Jim;   "I  shot  you." 

Mr-.  Dorsey,  while  telling  the  story,  says  she  was  fairly 
(lyinir  to  laugh,  and  the  exercise  of  all  her  powers  alone  pre 
vented  an  exhibition  of  great  impropriety.  But  for  the 
-ake  of  her  dignity  and  influence  in  the  school  room  she 
had  to  make  an  example,  and  therefore  caught  the  offending 
embryo  President,  turned  him  squarely  across  her  lap  and 
with  a  solid  book  administered  a  castigatioi;  upon  that  por 
tion  of  his  anatomy  destined  to  warm  the  executive  chair  of 
the  Nation.  It  was  all  very  unromantic  then,  but  there  is 
romance  connected  with  the  reminiscence  now.  Mrs. 
l)oi<ev  declares  she  laid  on  with  all  her  muscle,  but  that  Jim 
was  <o  -tubburn  that  he  just  lay  there  without  whimpering, 
and  tin-re  fore  gave  her  no  sort  of  satisfaction,  thus  leaving 
her  A\\\  the  viction  of  the  joke. 

The  house  in  which  Mrs.  Dorsey  held  school  while  young 
Blame  was  her  pupil  is  still  standing,  and  is  occupied  now 
by  a  >ub-tantial  farmer  named  Eiisha  Gibbons. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  53 

In  another  interview  held  with  Mrs.  Dorsey  by  a  reporter 
of  the  same  paper,  the  good  old  lady  told  the  following  story 
of  her  distinguished  pupil: 

"  When  James  went  to  school  to  me  there  was  no  particu 
lar  feature  about  him  except  his  nose,  which  was  so 
prominent — poor  little  fellow — that  the  hoys  called  him 
"nosy,"  not  inappropriate  but  very  bad  of  them.  He  was 
bright  and  mischievous  but  always  knew  his  lessons. 

"Once,  when  he  had  been  absent  from  school  several  days, 
upon  returning  took  his  position  at  the  foot  of  his  class,  as 
was  customary.  However,  on  that  day  when  the  class  was 
at  their  spelling  exercise,  I  gave  out  the  word  'typograph 
ically,'  beginning  with  the  boy  at  the  head;  he  missed  it, 
and  so  did  the  second,  and  all  the  rest  until  it  came  to  Jim 
Blaine.  I  did  not  fail  to  notice  his  anxiety  ;  his  eyes  twink 
led  with  anticipation  and  I  could  see  that  he  was  spelling  the 
word  over  and  over  again  to  himself.  One  boy  came  very 
near  spelling  the  word  correctly,  which  set  Jim  to  digging 
his  bare  toe  into  the  floor  in  nervous  expectation.  But  his 
turn  at  length  came,  and  as  it  reached  him  he  threw  back  his 
head  like  a  victor  waiting  the  crown,  and  with  great  em 
phasis  spelled,  t-y,  ty  ;  p-o,  po ;  g-r-a-p-h,  graph  ;  i-c-a-1-l-y, 
typographically,  he  shouted,  and  went  to  th  head  of  his  class 
without  waiting  for  my  assent. 

"Jim  was  always  fond  of  going  up,  and  he  had  a  way  of 
slurring  and  aspirating  his  letters  when  he  was  excited  as  I 
have  tried  to  show  you.  You  ought  to  have  heard  him  on  that 
'graph.'  Poor  little  Jim  ;  every  good  thing  he  got  he 
would  bring  me  a  part  of  it.  Do  you  think  he  would  come 
to  see  me  if  he  should  visit  Brownsville?  If  he  did,  I  could 
not  call  him  Mr.  Blaine,  but  would  just  have  to  say:  Is  this 
little  Jim  Blaine." 


54  LITE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

In  his  youth,  on  account  of  his  shyness  and  reticence  in 
their  society,  Blaine  was  not  a  general  favorite  with  the 
village  belles.  He  was  quick,  intelligent,  read  a  good  deal, 
and  was  fond  of  fun.  It  is  told  of  him  that  once,  when  he 
had  been  sent  to  the  village  store  to  buy  some  fish,  the 
storekeeper,  by  way  of  jest,  gave  him  an  article  which  he 
had  not  asked  for.  The  boy,  unaware  of  the  trick  played 
upon  him,  carried  the  article  home,  only  to  be  sent  back 
again.  Upon  his  re-entrance  into  the  store  he  was  greeted 
with  roars  of  laughter  from  the  assembled  loungers.  It 
was  a  crude,  practical  joke,  but  it  was  sufficient  to  give 
Blaine  a  "  nickname."  There  was  more  point  in  his  re 
venge.  The  man  who  played  the  joke  upon  him,  a  short 
time  after,  was  unloading  some  grain,  and  keeping  a  record 
of  the  number  of  bushels  by  placing  one  corn-cob  for  each 
bushel,  upon  a  ledge.  Young  Blaine  remained  a  passive 
but  interested  spectator  until  the  work  of  unloading  had 
made  considerable  progress,  then  he  quietly  removed  the 
rorn-cobs,  and  the  measuring  had  to  be  done  over  again. 
The  victim  took  the  jest  in  good  part,  and  acknowledged 
that  the  honors  were  easy. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  57 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Filled  with  that  mischievous  exuberance  which  induces 
many  a  boy  to  risk  his  neck  to  perpetrate  a  joke,  young 
Elaine,  on  one  occasion,  went  to  a  neighbor's  upon  some 
errand,  and  reaching  the  house  could  find  no  one  on  the 
premises;  he  immediately  conceived  the  idea  of  acquaint 
ing  the  old  farmer  with  his  visit  by  leaving  proofs  of  the 
fact  in  a  way  calculated  to  excite  no  little  ire.  Evidently 
the  farmer  was  no  great  distance  away,  for  his  two  horses 
had  just  been  unhitched  from  a  wagon  and  left  tied  under 
the  shade  of  a  large  tree.  On  a  piece  of  newspaper,  which 
he  chanced  to  find,  the  young  mischief-maker  wrote,  with 
the  stub  of  a  pencil,  something  like  the  following': 

44 Mr. I  am  a  member  of  the  robber  gang;  your 

horse  suits  me,  and  being  tired,  I  have  concluded  to  ride 
the  rest  of  the  way.  Look  out  for  me  for  I  may  be  back 
in  a  few  days  to  get  the  other  one. 


The  farmer  had  gone  to  the  spring  for  water  and  came 
back  just  in  time  to  see  the  lad  riding  leisurely  down  the 
road  leading  from  the  house.  Chase  was  at  once  given,  but 
young  Elaine  made  good  time;  it  soon  got  too  exciting,  how 
ever,  and  the  boy  checked  up,  rolled  off  the  horse  and  broke 
for  the  woods.  When  the  farmer  returned  to  his  house 
and  read  the  note  which  young  Elaine  had  written  and 
pinned  on  the  door,  he  saw  that  he  had  been  made  the  vic 
tim  of  an  innocent  joke,  and  laughed  heartily. 

There  were  very  few  more  tender  hearted  boys  than 
young  Elaine ;  his  sympathies  were  easily  excited  and  he 


LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

was  ready  to  go  to  any  extremity  to  relieve  suffering.  It 
is  reported  Unit  a  poor  widow  of  Brownsville  became  so 
distressed  for  means  to  support  her  several  children  that 
she  was  compelled  to  sell  her  cow  to  a  butcher.  When  the 
man  came  to  lead  the  animal  away  young  Elaine  happened 
to  be  present  and  saw  the  widow  crying.  Pity  rose  rank  in 
him  at  once,  and  asking  the  cause  of  her  tears  the  woman 
told  him  of  how  she  had  sold  the  cow  that  had  given  her 
family  support  for  so  long  a  time.  This  so  grieved  the 
.sympathetic  boy  that  he  ran  after  the  butcher,  followed  by 
the  woman's  children,  and  implored  him  to  restore  the  poor 
widow's  cow.  The  man  answered  this  request  with  gruff 
impatience,  whereupon  young  Blaine  offered  him,  if  he  would 
return  the  cow,  everything  on  his  person,  including  a  small 
watch  that  had  been  given  him  by  his  uncle  and  which  he 
very  highly  prized.  Finding  all  his  entreaties  vain  the  boy 
cried  with  a  grief  which  was  no  doubt  as  poignant  as  that 
felt  by  the  poor  woman  herself,  and  for  weeks  he  talked  of 
scarcely  anything  but  the  widow's  misfortune,  which  he 
tried  every  way  to  relieve. 

Whilo  Mr.  Blaine  was  studying  law  in  Carlisle  a  man 
came  to  him  one  day  with  a  long  story  of  his  wrongs,  which 
he  said,  for  want  of  means  to  employ  a  lawyer,  he  could  not 
redress.  Mr.  Blaine  listened  patiently  to  the  man's  state 
ment,  which  was  to  this  effect:  He  had  purchased  a  little 
home  in  the  country  with  money  which  he  had  been  care 
fully  hoarding  for  several  years,  and  went  to  farming  on  a 
small  patch  of  ground  which  he  could  barely  make  produce 
enough  to  satisfy  the  necessities  of  his  family,  but  there 
was  a  prospect  before  him  of  improvement;  the  home  was 
his,  and  hard  work  and  economy  he  felt  would  certainly 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  61 

bring  an  increase.  These  reflections  were  seriously  dis 
turbed,  however,  when  a  money  shark  of  the  place  notified 
him  that  the  deed  to  his  home  was  defective  and  that  a  quit 
claim  must  be  purchased  or  he  would  begin  suit  for  posses 
sion.  Mr.  Blaine  was  much  interested  in  the  story,  and  at 
once  began  an  investigation  of  the  complaint ;  he  was  not 
long  in  learning  that  his  client  had  reported  the  facts  sub 
stantially,  so  far  as  he  knew  them,  and  the  young 
but  acute  student  ascertained  that  the  defect  in  the  title 
-had  been  purposely  made  by  the  money  shark  who  had 
taken  the  acknowledgments ;  that  the  entire  purchase 
had  been  paid  and  that  the  case  was  one  in  which  a  dec 
laration  of  rights  and  promises  of  punishment  would 
avail  more  swiftly  and  surely  than  to  trust  it  to  a  judicial  in 
quiry.  Acting  upon  this  theory,  Mr.  Blaine  went  directly 
to  the  notarial  miscreant's  office,  where  an  interview  fol 
lowed  substantially  as  follows: 

Blaine — "Mr. 1  called  to  see  you  with  relation  to  an 

interest  which  you  claim  to  hold  in  the  property  purchased 
and  now  occupied  by  my  client,  Mr. -." 

Money  Shark — "Yes,  yes,  I  hold  an  interest  in  that 
property.  The  deed  of  transfer  was  never  signed  by  the 
wife  of  the  conveyor,  and  I  purchased  her  equity  in  the 
property." 

B. — "  So  that  is  why  you  want  Mr.  -  -  to  buy  your  quit 
claim.  I  see  quite  clearly  now.  Mr.  Blank,  may  I  ask 
if  it  were  not  yourself  who  took  the  acknowledgments  to 
the  deed  that  conveyed  this  property;  and  did  you  not  cer 
tify  to  the  signatures  of  both  the  conveyor  and  his  wife,  and 
were  you  not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  lady  and  received 
her  consent  to  the  conveyance?  Answer  me  these  ques 
tions." 


DO  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

Money  Shark.—"  Well — well — I  have  forgotten  many  of 
tin-  particulars— 

B. — "Yes,  you  have  forgotten;  your  infirmity  in  that 
respect  entitles  you  to  much  pity;  but  without  wasting 
words  I  want  to  say,  emphatically,  that  if  you  don't  at  once 

ivnounce  your  pretended  interest  in  Mr. 's  property  by 

•riving  him  the  quit-claim  you  hold  I  will  sue  you  on  your 
notarial  bond,  and  have  you  indicted  besides,  you  miserable 
old  scoundrel !  Your  crime  is  of  the  most  dastardly  charac 
ter,  and  I  will  follow  you  all  the  rest  of  my  days  or  make 
you  atone  for  it,  so  far  as  it  affects  my  client." 

The  effect  of  Mr.  Elaine's  speech  was  to  produce  a  great 
change  in  the  old  money  shark,  for  seeing  that  the  young 
but  resolute  desciple  of  Justinian  meant  no  idle  threat,  the 
old  fellow  readily  renounced  all  interest  in  the  property, 
and  not  only  this,  but  begged  Mr.  Elaine  to  keep  the  matter 
quiet  for  the  sake  of  his  family. 

This  was  Mr.  Elaine's  first  and  only  appearance  as  an  at 
torney,  and  for  his  success  his  pay  was  in  the  satisfaction  he 
felt  for  having  circumvented  the  scheme  of  a  villain  to  rob 
a  poor  man. 

Mr.  Elaine's  father  died  leaving  his  estate  in  jeopardy, 
with  taxes  unpaid  and  much  of  the  landed  property  under 
mortgage.  Mrs.  Elaine  was  therefore  compelled  to  take 
upon  herself  a  burden  of  responsibility  for  which  she  was 
wholly  unprepared.  Necessity  forced  her  to  a  very  great 
task,  the  care  of  a  household  and  an  estate  that  was  on  the 
v.Trre  of  dissolution.  Bravely,  almost  hopefully,  she  did  her 
duty,  but  with  all  her  energy  there  seemed  no  abatement  of 
tin-  troubles,  and  soon  her  health  began  to  show  the  effects 
of  constant  worry  and  unrequited  effort.  The  lines,  grad 
ually  deepening,  of  insidious  disease,  appeared  one  after 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  65 

another,  and  wasting  strength  was  not  long  in  confining  her 
to  the  bed.  Here  she  lay,  with  patient  resignation,  for 
months,  displaying  true  Christian  fortitude,  solaced  by  her 
Bible,  which  never  left  the  bed  on  which  she  rested.  Reared 
a  Catholic,  she  was  catholic  in  all  things,  not  only  in  devo 
tion  to  church  rites,  but  to  Christian  duties  as  well.  When 
she  at  length  became  too  weak  to  hold  her  Bible,  she  had 
those  who  watched  and  cared  for  her  to  read  aloud  consola 
tory  selections.  When  death  began  to  breathe  upon  her, 
she  did  not  mistake  its  meaning,  and  while  conscious  facul 
ties  remained  she  called  her  son  James,  and  while  he  knelt 
by  the  bedside  she  placed  her  hands  upon  his  head  and  gave 
him  her  bounteous  blessings.  When  the  boy  arose,  through 
his  blinding  tears  he  saw  the  still  face  of  his  mother,  so  still 
and  wan  that  instinct  told  him  she  was  dead.  Thus  died  a 
noble  Christian  woman,  whose  proud  spirit  was  denied  the 
boundless  happiness  of  seeing  her  blessings  attend  her  son 
through  the  highest  avenues  of  life,  to  that  honor  which  no 
greater  can  be  given  by  a  nation. 


LJTE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  school  advantages  about  Brownsville  were  limited,  as 
Mrs.  Dorsey  was  the  only  teacher,  and  even  she  taught 
irregularly.  But  Mrs.  Blaine  gave  much  attention  to  in 
structing  her  children,  and  James  was  not  yet  in  his  teens 
when  he  had  progressed  so  far  in  his  education  that  the 
neighborhood  teacher  could  instruct  him  no  further. 

o 

Mrs.  Blaine's  mother  was  a  Miss  O' Boyle,  the  daughter 
of  an  Irish  patriot  who,  on  account  of  having  participated 
in  the  Revolutionary  movement  of  1798,  had  been  compelled 
to  flee  Ireland.  He  first  went  to  France,  but  soon  left 
there  and  came  to  this  country,  settling  in  the  Hocking 
Valley,  Ohio.  Mr.  O'Boyle  had  three  daughters,  all  famous 
beauties,  one  of  whom  married  Mr.  Blaine,  another  Tom 
Ewing,  and  the  youngest  married  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman. 

Tom  Ewing,  the  great  uncle  of  James  G.  Blaine,  was  a 
resident  of  Lancaster,  Ohio,  where  there  was  a  school  of 
some  local  importance,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Ewing, 
James,  who  was  now  twelve  years  of  age,  was  sent  there  to 
continue  his  education.  Mr.  Ewing  was  at  that  time  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  under  the  administration  of  John 
Tyler,  and  the  cultured  family  of  which  he  was  the  head,  of 
which  James  was  now  made  a  member,  exerted  a  most  ex 
cellent  influence  on  the  ambitious  youth. 

Having  had  home  instruction,  chiefly  from  his  mother, 
James  was  already  familiar  with  the  rudimentary  studies 
when  he  went  to  Lancaster,  and  in  one  year  after  entering 


JAMES    G.     BLAINE.  09 

the  school  there  he  was  advanced  to  its  standard  for  gradu 
ation.  Mr.  Ewing  insisting  upon  his  continuing  his  studies, 
in  1843  James  was  sent  to  Washington  College,  Pennsylvania, 
where  he  applied  himself  with  such  dilligence  that  in  1847  he 
graduated  at  the  head  of  a  class  of  thirty -three  members. 
He  was  prominent  as  a  scholar  among  the  two  or  three 
hundred  other  lads  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
because  of  his  splendid  physique  he  was  also  a  leader  in 
all  manly  athletic  sports.  He  was  not  a  bookworm,  or  a 
burner  of  midnight  oil,  but  he  was  a  close  student  and 
possessed  the  happy  faculty  of  assimilating  knowledge  from 
books  and  tutors  far  more  easily  and  quickly  than  most 
of  his  fellows.  In  debating  societies  he  held  his  own  well, 
and  was  conspicuous  by  his  ability  to  control  and  direct 
others. 

In  his  own  classes  he  was  always  foremost  as  a  scholar, 
and  personally  very  popular.  To  the  new  scholars  who 
entered  in  succeeding  classes  he  was  a  hero — uniformly  kind 
to  them,  ready  to  give  assistance  and  advice,  and  eager  to 
make  pleasant  their  path  in  college  life.  His  handsome 
person  and  neat  attire;  his  ready  sympathy  and  prompt 
assistance;  his  frank,  generous  nature,  and  his  brave,  manly 
bearing,  made  him  the  best  known,  the  best  loved,  and  the 
most  popular  boy  at  college.  He  was  the  arbiter  among 
younger  boys  in  all  their  disputes,  and  the  authority  with 
those  of  his  own  age  on  all  questions.  He  was  always  for 
the  "under  dog  in  the  fight;"  and  at  the  end  of  the  usual 
four  years'  course  at  college  he  was  graduated  with  the 
most  distinguished  honors  of  his  class,  and  went  forth 
into  practical  life  well  fitted  in  acquirements  and  training  to 
deal  with  its  problems,  and  bearing  as  a  crown  of  youthful 
honor  the  affection  and  esteem  of  all  his  associates.  The 


70  LIFE  AKt>  PUBLIC  SERVICES  otf 

branches  in  which  he  particularly  excelled,  and  for  which  he 
received  special  honors,  were  mathematics,  logic,  Latin  and 
political  economy. 

He  was  not  yet  eighteen  years  of  age,  but  circumstances 
compelled  the  immediate  employment  of  his  talents.  He 
was  now  a  thin  but  muscular  young  man,  full  of  western 
dash  and  dauntless  spirit.  Ohio,  where  he  had  received 
many  permanent  impressions,  was  then  a  fairly  frontier 
State  in  which  were  all  the  elements  of  hardihood  and  inde 
pendence,  which  left  a  marked  impression  on  him  during 
his  schooling  at  Lancaster  As  a  student,  James  had  been 
foremost  in  his  classes,  a  leader  among  his  associates,  and 
now  on  manhood's  threshold  he  showed  a  determination  not 
to  loiter  behind  the  van  that  marched  under  the  banner  of 
ambition. 

For  a  year  or  more  he  tried  to  recover  some  of  the  estate 
which  should  have  rightfully  been  his,  but  he  found  it  quite 
impossible.  His  father  had  owned  the  largest  amount  of 
lands  in  Pennsylvania  that  had,  up  to  that  time,  ever  passed 
into  one  man's  possession  in  America,  but  the  investments 
had  proved  far  from  profitable,  leaving  him,  indeed,  land 
poor ;  much  the  greater  portion  of  all  his  lands  had  reverted 
to  the  State  for  non-payment  of  taxes,  titles  to  other  parts 
were  defective,  and  that  which  still  belonged  to  him  was  non 
productive  and  unsalable.  In  this  condition  the  estate  was 
left  at  the  time  of  the  elder  Elaine's  death,  so  that  from  wealth 
the  family  had  been  reduced  to  comparative  poverty,  with  a 
portion  remaining  barely  sufficient  to  support  the  widow. 

Nothing  else  offering,  suited  to  his  experience  or  abilities, 
James  engaged  and  taught  a  six  month's  private  school  near 
Carlisle,  in  which  he  gave  general  satisfaction  to  his  patrons, 
but  made  very  little  money. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE,  71 

He  cast  about  for  more  remunerative  employment,  but 
finding  noqethat  promised  better  than  teaching,  he  concluded 
to  turn  his  steps  westward  where  the  avenue  leading  to  for 
tune  was  broader  and  more  direct.  It  chanced  that  about 
this  time,  through  the  influence  of  Tom  Ewing,  he  was 
offered  a  professorship  in  the  Western  Military  Academy  at 
Blue  Lick  Springs,  Kentucky,  and  upon  accepting  was  as 
signed  to  the  Chair  of  Mathematics.  This  college  was  one 
of  very  great  importance  then,  having  on  its  roll  not  less 
than  five  hundred  students,  representing  sections  of  nearly 
all  the  States. 

In  this  capacity  he  continued  one  year  with  great  satisfac 
tion  to  the  faculty,  but  with  so  little  to  himself  that  he  decided 
to  adopt  the  legal  profession,  and  with  that  end  in  view  he 
returned  to  Pennsylvania,  where  he  studied  law,  but  was 
never  admitted  to  the  bar. 

During  his  connection  with  the  Military  School,  two  spe 
cially  memorable  circumstances  occurred  which  left  their  per 
manent  impress  upon  him.  One  of  these  was  the  evolution  of  a 
real  battle  from  the  theoretical  tactics  which  the  college  daily 
imparted.  A  dispute  arose  between  the  owners  of  the  Springs 
and  the  College  principals,  which  finally  culminated  in  a  pitch 
ed  battle,  in  which  knives,  clubs  and  pistols  were  freely  used. 
A  student  of  this  college,  who  is  at  present  a  retired  army 
officer,  relates  that  Mr.  Elaine,  who  was  at  that  time  a  thin, 
handsome  and  very  earnest  young  man,  exhibited  very  great 
personal  courage,  participating  in  the  affray  with  no  other 
weapons  than  those  nature  had  provided  him  with,  which  he 
used  with  such  well  disciplined  energy,  that  he  became  a 
heroic  victor  and  was  duly  complimented  for  his  bravery. 
Thus  early  did  he  give  evidence  of  his  adherence  to  party 
and  courage  to  defend  his  principles. 


72  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

The  other  circumstance  was  of  even  greater  interest  to 
the  young  aspirant.  Twenty  miles  distant,  at  a  small 
town  called  Millersburg,  was  a  young  ladies'  seminary,  and  it 
is  in  no  sense  strange  that  there  should  have  been  more  or 
less  mingling  of  the  pupils  between  the  two  schools.  Among 
the  young  lady  students  was  a  Miss  Stanwood,  a  beautiful 
Massachusetts  girl,  possessed  of  exceeding  grace  and  great 
conversational  powers.  Mr.  Elaine  had  scarcely  been  intro 
duced  to  this  attractive  lady  before  he  was  securely  caught  in 
the  meshes  of  love.  Being  a  professor,  though  young,  he  felt 
the  restraints  which  a  proper  dignity  demanded  he  should 
constantly  assume;  he  brooded  over  the  hardship  of  not 
being  able  to  prosecute  his  suit  with  the  free  abandon  of 
those  who,  though  no  younger  than  he,  were  yet  school 
boys.  A  professor  in  love,  viewed  through  the  romantic  eye 
of  a  student,  is  about  as  grotesque  in  appearance  as  a  bevy 
of  cows  dancing  a  jig.  Mr.  Elaine  realized  all  this,  and 
fretted  under  his  embarrassments,  until  his  desire  for  free 
dom  to  act  without  the  constraints  of  professorial  dignity 
finally  led  him  to  resign  his  seat  in  the  college  and  return  to 
Pennsylvania,  as  previously  remarked.  Here  he  became  a 
newspaper  and  magazine  contributor,  his  articles  attracting 
much  attention  for  their  clearness  of  style  and  logical  iva- 
soning. 

His  love  making  by  letter  progressed  favorably,  and  within 
less  than  a  year  after  leaving  the  military  academy  Miss 
Harriet  Stanwood  became  his  wife.  She  was  the  eighth  of 

o 

nine  children.  Her  father,  Jacob  Stanwood,  moved  to  Au 
gusta  from  Ipswich,  Mass.,  in  1822.  He  had  two  wives.  He 
had  one  child  by  his  first  wife;  by  his  second  wife,  who 
was  Sally  Caldwell,  of  Ipsnich,  he  had  seven  children,  and 
Harriet  was  the  seventh  of  them.  Her  father  was  for 
many  yens  a  wood-merchant.  He  died  Jan.  20,  1845,  aged 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  73 

59,  from  disease  of  the  heart,  dropping  dead  instantly  while 
in  the  Freeman's  Bank  of  Augusta.  Miss  Stanwood's 
parents  were  never  wealthy,  but  they  were  prominent  and 
influential.  To  relieve  her  father  of  a  part  of  the  burden 
which  the  support  of  his  considerable  family  imposed,  she 
taught  school  for  several  terms,  principally  in  Kentucky,  and 
was  an  instructor  in  the  Millersburg  Academy  when  Mr. 
Elaine  first  met  her. 


LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  exceedingly  happy  with  his  heart's  choice, 
;i  woman  who  possessed  all  his  love  and  who  was  equally 
faithful  to  him.  But  though  he  reckoned  not  of  the  diffi 
culties  which  might  thwart  his  purposes  by  reason  of  his 
poverty,  yet  the  world  before  him  was  all  uphill,  with  no 
friendly  Alpinestock  of  even  moderate  wealth  to  give  assist 
ance.  In  place  of  wealth,  however,  Mr.  Elaine  had  moral 
courage,  a  hopeful  mind,  energy  and  talents;  these  were  his 
aids,  and  bounteous  they  proved  to  be. 

The  contributions  which  he  had  made  to  the  press,  re 
ceived  with  such  favor,  inclined  him  towards  journalism, 
particularly  as  he  had  as  yet  made  no  preparations  for  enter 
ing  any  other  profession.  Some  of  his  wife's  relatives  were 
residing  in  Augusta,  Maine,  and  as  the  Kennebec  Journal  of 
that  city  was  known  by  them  to  be  in  need  of  an  editor, 
they  proposed  that  Mr.  Elaine  should  fill  the  position  The 
proposition  was  gladly  accepted,  and  he  was  thus  inducted 
into  the  profession  most  congenial  to  all  his  aspirations. 

As  editor  of  the  Journal,  Mr.  Elaine  rapidly  gained  repu 
tation,  and  the  paper  vastly  increased  its  influence;  indeed 
at  the  time  he  entered  upon  its  editorship  the  paper  had  a 
precarious  support  and  doubtful  financial  standing;  his  able 
pen  and  management  soon  changed  it  to  a  prosperous  and 
most  important  journal  and  gave  it  a  position  so  substantial 
that  it  still  survives  as  the  leading  paper  of  Maine.  In  pol 
itics  it  was  Whig,  that  grand  party  which  emerged  into  a 
more  brilliant  organization,  after  the  defeat  of  Clay,  as  our 
Republican  party.  Mr.  Elaine  was  fully  in  accord 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  75 

with  the  sentiments  and  hopes  of  the  Whigs,  and  he  fought 
the  good  light  with  the  strong  weapons  which  he  kept  bright 
by  constant  use.  In  1857  he  sold  his  interest  in  the  Jour 
nal  and  became  editor  of  the  Portland  Daily  Advertiser,  in 
which  capacity  he  continued  until  1860,  when,  on  account  of 
the  illness  of  Judge  Baker,  his  old  partner,  who  was  editing 
the  Kennebec  Journal,  he  returned  to  that  paper  to  conduct 
it  through  the  exciting  campaign  of  that  year. 

Mr.  Elaine  had  been  in  Maine  less  than  two  years  when 
his  power  as  a  writer,  speaker  and  political  leader  became 
recognized.  He  was  a  strong  Fremont  man,  and  took  tho 
stump  in  the  campaign  of  1856,  addressing  immense  audien 
ces  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  in  which  he  gained  such  influ 
ence  that  in  1858  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislature.  Here 
he  served  with  great  distinction  and  was  re-elected  in  1860 
and  chosen  speaker  of  the  Lower  House.  He  was  recognized 
as  the  ablest  parliamentarian  that  had,  up  to  that  time,  ever 
sat  in  the  Maine  Legislature.  His  services  were  relied  on  to 
propose  and  carry  through  measures  designed  for  the  benefit 
of  the  business  interests  of  his  State,  and  to  defeat  those  of 
ill  considered  and  ulterior  purpose. 

When  the  Whig  party  went  to  pieces  Mr.  Blaine  proposed 
and  joined  influences  with  Governor  Anson  P.  Morrill,  in 
organizing  the  Republican  party  in  the  Pine  Tree  State. 
His  vigorous  attacks  against  the  Buchanan  administration 
made  him  an  immense  power  in  the  new  organization. 

In  a  private  letter  the  late  Governor  Kent,  of  Maine,  thua 
speaks  of  this  great  man : 

"  Almost  from  the  day  of  his  assuming  editorial  charge  of 
the  Kennebec  Journal,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-three,  Mr. 
Blaine  sprang  into  a  position  of  great  influence  in  the  poli 
tics  and  policy  of  Maine.  At  twenty-five  he  was  a  leading 
power  in  the  councils  of  the  Republican  party,  so  recognized 


7b*  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

by  Fessenden,  Hamlin,  the  two  Mori-ills,  and  others  then 
and  still  prominent  in  the  State.  Before  he  was  twenty- 
nine  he  was  chosen  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Republican  organization  in  Maine — a  position  he  has  held 
ever  since,  and  from  which  he  has  practically  shaped  and  di 
rected  every  political  campaign  in  the  State — always  leading 
his  party  to  brilliant  victory.  Had  Mr.  Elaine  been  New 
England  born,  he  would  probably  not  have  received  such 
rapid  advancement  at  so  early  an  age,  even  with  the  same 
ability  he  possessed.  But  there  was  a  sort  of  Western  dash 
about  him  that  took  with  us  Down-Easters;  an  expression 
of  frankness,  candor  and  confidence  that  gave  him  from 
the  start  a  very  strong  and  permanent  hold  on  our  people 
and,  as  the  foundation  of  all,  a  pure  character  and  a  masterly 
ability  equal  to  all  demands  made  upon  him." 

Mr.  Blaine  drew  up  the  first  platform  ever  adopted  by 
the  Republicans  of  Maine,  in  1854.  At  its  ratification,  he 
addressed  the  State  Convention  as  follows: 

"Sink  or  Swim;"  therefore,  as  old  John  Adams  said, 
"live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,"  we  give  our  hands  and  our 
hearts  to  this  great  Republican  movement.  We  cannot  be 
content  to  sit  down  and  hug  the  fossil  remains  of  dead  is 
sues.  Let  the  dead  bury  the  dead.  We  live  for  the  present 
and  the  future.  We  grasp  the  living  issues — the  duties  of 
to-day.  When  the  voice  of  our  country  calls  to  us;  when 
the  bugle  note  of  liberty  from  every  hill  and  valley,  from 
the  East,  the  West,  the  North  and  the  South  is  summoning 
its  friends  to  the  glorious  contest,  let  traitors  flee  cO  the 
enemy  where  they  belong,  and  cowards  seek  refuge  under 
the  shadow  of  the  dead  past;  but  as  for  us,  we  will  obey 
the  call ;  nor  can  we  stop  to  ask  who  is  our  leader,  or  who 
stand  by  our  side,  or  what  uniform  they  wear,  or  weapons 
they  use,  if  they  are  gallantly  battling  for  the  right.  No, 
we  will  help  fight  this  battle.  We  will  help  bear  the 
glorious  banner  of  Republican  liberty  on  to  victory,  till 


JAMES    «.     BLAINE.  77 

our  government  is  completely  and  forever  divorced  from 
slavery  and  wielded  "to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity." 

The  pronounced  opinions  of  Mr.  Elaine,  so  eloquently 
and  forcibly  expressed,  became,  much  through  his  influence, 
predominant  in  the  future  political  campaigns  in  Maine. 
He  never  swerved  or  for  one  moment  deviated  in  his  alle 
giance  to  these  exalted  principles,  remaining  loyal  and  con 
sistent  through  all  the  trying  vicissitudes  and  ordeals  which 
his  party  had  to  encounter  in  the  rugged  path  that  led 
upward  to  victory. 


78  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  first  duty  that  Mr.  Elaine  performed  after  he  took 
his  seat  in  the  House,  in  1854,  was  when  he  was  charged  by 
that  branch  to  inform  the  Senate  that  the  House  had  made 
choice  of  William  Pitt  Fessenden  as  United  States  Senator 
for  six  years.  Mr.  Fessenden  was  one  of  Maine's  great 
statesmen,  and  had  for  many  years  adorned  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  held  other  high  offices  with  honor  to 
himself  and  to  his  State.  Mr.  Elaine  commenced  at  once 
to  take  part  in  the  debates  of  the  House,  and  was  recog 
nized  as  one  of  its  leaders.  The  first  speech  he  made,  which 
may  be  considered  his  maiden  effort,  was  in  reply  to 
Frederick  A.  Pike,  a  member  from  Calais,  afterwards  a 
distinguished  member  of  Congress  from  Maine,  in  which  he 
favored  a  salary  to  members  of  the  Legislature,  instead  of 
per  diem  jwy.  His  proposition  was  carried,  and  afterwards 
engrafted  into  the  constitution  of  the  State.  The  first 

o 

speech  of  public  interest  he  made  during  his  service  in  the 
Legislature  (1859)  was  on  a  series  of  resolves  introduced 
into  the  House,  by  the  representatives  of  the  National  Ad 
ministration,  favoring  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  by  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Elaine  contended  that  it  was  a  dangerous 
measure,  both  as  to  practice  and  precedence,  and  that  it 
was  objectionable  on  every  consideration  of  expediency  and 
right.  He  said: 

"  So  far,  Mr.  Speaker,  as  the  resolves  under  consideration 
imply  disapproval  of  the  Slidell  measure,  they  have  my 
entire  concurrence,  and,  I  have  no  doubt,  the  concurrence  of 
a  large  majority  of  this  House.  I  object  to  their  adoption, 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE. 

however,  because  they  express  in  an  indirect  manner  what 
I  wish  to  see  as  certain,  explicit,  and  with  emphasis.  The 
proposition  to  place  thirty  millions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal 
of  the  President,  and  to  run  the  Nation  in  debt,  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  the  money;  to  surrender  to  him  the 
power  to  make  treaties,  annex  territories,  and  form  States; 
to  create  him  absolute  dictator  with  the  purse  of  the  Nation 
in  one  hand,  and  the  sword  in  the  other;  to  have  peace  or 
war,  prosperity  or  misfortune  follow  at  his  will,  or  be  de 
cided  by  his  errors.  Such  a  proposition,  I  say,  is  too  mon 
strous  to  be  entertained  for  one  moment  by  anyone  who 
values  the  preservation  of  constitutional  rights  and  the  per 
petuity  of  a  Republican  Union.  A  dozen  years  ago,  when 
our  country  was  in  actual  war  with  the  neighboring  nations, 
when  it  was  supposed  that  peace  could  be  promoted  and 
hastened  by  placing  three  millions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal 
of  the  President,  the  proposition  was  regarded  as  so  danger 
ous  that  staid,  conservative  and  dignified  Senators  thought 
themselves  justified  in  resorting  to  methods  of  opposition, 
almost  revolutionary  in  their  character,  in  order  to  compass 
its  defeat.  The  precedent  was  regarded  as  a  dangerous  one, 
and  was  even  admitted  to  be  so  by  those  who  sustained  the 
measure,  the  only  plausible  defect  of  which  was  that  the 
fund  appropriated  might  and  would  hasten  the  peace  which 
was  so  generally  desired.  But  now,  when  we  are  in  pro- 
found  k  amity  and  concord '  with  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  when  a  change  in  our  foreign  relations  would  most 
probably  be  for  the  worse,  it  is  deliberately  proposed  to 
place  under  the  control  of  the  President  the  enormous  sum 
of  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  in  order  to  see  whether  he  may 
not  corrupt  Spanish  officials  into  a  transfer  of  their  most 
valuable  dependency,  and  possibly  get  us  into  a  war  with 


80  LIFK    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

England  and  France,  as  a  sort  of  premium  to  the  value  of 
Cuban  acquisition.  The  proposition  to  place  three  millions 
at  President  Folk's  disposal  to  get  us  out  of  war,  as  I  have 
<\\(],  was  considered  doubtful  and  dangerous,  and  yet  it  is 
coolly  proposed  to  give  President  Buchanan  ten  times  as 
large  a  sum  to  see  if  in  some  kind  of  secret  diplomacy  he 
may  not  possibly  be  able  to  get  us  into  a  war.  The  Dem 
ocratic  party  in  Congress  sustained  both  measures,  the  past, 
and  the  present.  But  I  think  it  a  foolish  species  of  polit 
ical  arithmetic  that  considers  it  worth  three  millions  of  dol 
lars  in  1847  to  get  us  out  of  a  war,  with  a  weak  power,  and 
yet  has  no  hesitancy  to  pay  thirty  millions  in  1859,  for  the 
possibility  of  getting  into  a  war  with  three  strong  powers  ! 
1  do  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  administration  Demo 
crats  in  this  State  fail,  as  they  have  failed  to  endorse  the 
outrageous  measure,  and  all  I  desire  is,  that  the  Maine 
Legislature  will  not  content  itself  with  the  implied  disap 
probation  of  the  Slidell  scheme  proposed  in  the  resolutions 
before  us,  but  that  a  manly,  outspoken  and  explicit  pro 
test  shall  be  recorded  against  so  dangerous  a  policy. 


"  The  executive  power  of  the  country  is  sufficiently  strong 
and  overshadowing  already,  without  seeking  to  aggrandize 
and  increase  it  by  enormous  grants  of  extra-constitutional 
power.  Let  us  discountenance  and  repudiate  this  alarming 
measure  as  dangerous  in  itself,  and  not  even  tending 
to  compass  the  object  which  is  put  forth  as  the  pre 
text  and  excuse  for  it.  Let  us  cease  a  fruitless  and  aimless 
agitation  at  home,  which  no  one  expects  to  result  in  practi 
cal  good ;  and  let  us  cease  also  to  insult  and  menace  that 
proud  old  Monarchy  of  Castile  and  Arraby,  to  which,  as  Mr. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  81 

Buchanan  asserts,  'we  are  bound  by  ties  of  ancient  friend 
ship,  that  we  sincerely  desire  to  render  perpetual." 

The  resolutions  were  defeated,  and  at  the  instance  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  the  Legislature  passed  a  resolve  instructing  the  Sen 
ators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  from  Maine,  to  reflect 
the  will  of  their  constituents  by  vigorously  opposing  the 
measure. 

In  the  Summer  of  1858,  the  Republican  party  held  their 
convention  at  Augusts,  for  the  nomination  of  a  candidate 
for  governor.  Lot  M.  Morrill  of  that  city  was  nominated. 
Mr.  Elaine  was  a  member  of  that  convention  from  Au 
gusta.  He  served  on  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  and  was 
appointed  its  Chairman.  The  convention  adopted  the  reso 
lutions  reported  by  him,  and  which  were  drafted  by  his 
vigorous  and  trenchant  pen.  These  resolutions  declared  the 
determined  hostility  of  the  Republicans  of  Maine  to  the 
insulting  claims  of  the  slave-holding  aristocracy,  who  fur 
nished  the  maxims,  and  dictated  the  measures,  and  laid  down 
the  principles  of  the  party  in  power  in  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  but,  happily  out  of  power  in  most  of  the  free  States. 
The  Republican  party  upheld  the  dignity,  the  education, 
and  the  elevation  of  labor.  Unlike  their  opponents,  they 
disBeliuvud  in  its  llecessary  ignorance  and  degradation.  It 
refused  to  recognize  the  doctrines  of  the  Democratic  Oli 
garchy  that  the  laboring  class  is  in  a  fixed  condition  of 
chronic  ignorance  and  barbarism,  who  must  forever  remain 
the  mud-sills  of  society,  and  the  people  of  the  free  States 
were  called  upon  to  repudiate  those  insolent  pretenders  of 
a  pampered  aristocracy,  who  claimed  to  have  governed  the 
free  States  for  nearly  sixty  years,  by  taking  that  govern 
ment  into  their  own  hands.  The  resolutions  further  de 
clared  that  the  political  contest  of  that  time  deeply  involve 


82  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC  SERVICES   OF 

the  old  question  of  Federal  supremacy  and  State  rights. 
NJn  this  controversy  the  Republicans  held  to  the  doctrine  of 
State  rights  as  expounded  by  the  fathers  of  the  constitu- 
1  tion,  believing  that  the  liberties  of  the  people  would  fall 
1  when  the  State  should  become  subordinate  to  the  general 
(government,  and  consolidation  usurp  the  place  of  a  federa 
tive  Union  of  essentially  independent  sovereignty  ;  "  that  we 
kave  an  abiding  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  interpreted  without  qualifications,  and  rever 
ence  the  noble  men  who  dared  announce  and  stand  by  them 
in  the  day  of  their  unpopularity."  The  doctrine  of  the 
Republican  platform,  adopted  at  Philadelphia  in  1851),  was 
re-affirmed.  "The  administration  of  James  Buchanan  has 
proved  itself  to  be  unworthy  of  the  confidence  of  the 
American  people  by  its  course  towards  those  who  are  strug 
gling  to  establish  free  institutions  in  Kansas,  which  betrays  a 
spirit  more  desperate  and  corrupt  than  that  which  animated 
the  British  king  and  ministers  in  their  treatment  of  the 
American  Colonies  which  drew  our  fathers  into  war."  The 
em  of  extravagance  and  corruption  of  government  was  de 
nounced,  and  it  was  declared  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
State  government  to  foster  its  industrial  interests. 

Among  the  interesting  earlier  incidents  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
political  career,  was  his  election  as  a  delegate  from  his  Con 
gressional  district  to  the  first  Republican  National  Conven 
tion,  in  May,  1856,  which  nominated  John  C.  Fremont  to 
the  Presidency.  Upon  his  return  from  the  convention  a 
ratification  meeting  was  held  in  Augusta,  in  Meonian  Hall, 
and  upon  the  urgent  insistance  of  some  of  his  personal 
friends,  he  was  persuaded,  reluctantly,  to  appear  upon  the 
platform  and  make  report  of  the  doings  of  the  convention. 
This  was  his  first  public  effort.  He  was  then  twenty-six 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  83 

years  of  age.  Although  remarkably  ready  and  easy  of 
speech  and  holding  a  practiced  and  powerful  pen,  he  had  an 
almost  unconquerable  repugnance  to  letting  his  voice  be 
heard,  except  in  familiar  conversation  where  his  brilliant 
powers  of  statement  and  argument,  his  marvelous  memory 
of  dates  and  events  in  political  history,  and  his  acquaintance 
with,  and  keen  estimate  of,  the  public  men  and  parties  of  the 
day,  were  the  delight  and  wonder  of  all  who  listened  to 
him.  Those  present  will  recall  the  trepidation,  at  once  pain 
ful  and  ludicrous,  with  which  he  rose  to  address  the  meeting. 
In  confronting  the  sea  of  faces,  almost  every  one  of  which 
was  known  to  him,  he  seemed  to  be  struggling  to  master 
the  terror  that  possessed  him.  He  turned  pale  and  red  by 
turns,  and  almost  tottering  to  the  front,  he  stood  trembling 
until  the  generous  applause  which  welcomed  him  had  died 
away,  when,  by  a  supreme  effort,  he  broke  the  spell,  at  first 
by  the  utterance  of  some  hesitating  words  of  greeting 
and  thanks,  and  gathering  confidence,  he  went  on  with  a 
speech  which  stirred  the  audience  as  with  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet,  and  held  all  present  in  breathless  interest  and  at 
tention  to  its  close.  From  that  moment  Mr.  Blaine  took 
rank  among  the  most  effective  popular  speakers  of  the  day ; 
but  it  may  be  doubted  if  among  the  many  maturer  efforts  of 
his  genius  and  eloquence  upon  the  political  platform,  or  the 
legislative  tribune,  he  has  ever  excited  an  audience  to  a 
more  passionate  enthusiasm  or  left  a  profounder  impres 
sion  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  hearers. 

During  the  session  of  the  Legislature  in  the  winter  of 
1859-60,  there  was  a  joint  convention  of  the  Republican 
members  of  both  branches,  together  with  the  Republican 
State  Committee,  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  eight  delegates 
to  the  Republican  National  Convention,  to  be  held  at  Chicago, 


84  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

July  20,  1800.  At  this  convention,  Mr.  Elaine  presented 
the  following  resolutions,  which  he  himself  drafted,  and 
which  were  unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  Republicans  of  Maine  hereby  declare 
their  unfaltering  attachment  to  their  party,  cherishing  its 
principles  with  ardent  zeal  and  adhering  to  its  organization 
with  patient  fidelity.  They  do  not,  therefore,  recognize 
the  propriety  or  still  less  the  necessity  of  going  outside  of 
their  own  ranks  for  a  standard-bearer  in  the  great  national 
contest  which  is  to  vindicate  their  principles  and  their  policy. 

Resolved,  That  the  delegates  elected  by  this  convention 
:uv  hereby  authorized  to  cast  their  influence  at  Chicago  for 
Republican  candidates  who  shall  be  deemed  most  likely  to 
concentrate  the  largest  vote  at  the  polls  in  November  next 
—principle  being  regarded  as  superior  to  men,  and  the 
triumph  of  the  cause  above  everything  else. 

Resolved,  That  in  enunciating  these  positions  we  are  but 
re-affirming  the  views  to  which  the  people  of  Maine  have  al 
ways  adhered.  They  ask  for  no  new  interpretations  of  the  con 
stitution,  but  demand  that  it  shall  be  construed  and  admin 
istered  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  framed.  Attached  to  the 
Union  by  patriotic  association  and  the  ties  of  commercial 
interest, the  people  of  this  State  will  be  the  last  to  adopt  any 
course  of  action  which  will  afford  just  cause  for  dissolving  or 
weakening  the  bonds  which  unite  them  to  their  sister  mem 
bers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Resolved,  That  the  latest  promulgation  of  political  doc 
trine  by  the  Democratic  members  of  the  United  States  Sen 
ate,  is  one  more  proof  that  the  Democratic  party  is  sec 
tional  in  its  principles,  and  is  wielded  for  the  supremacy 
of  a  sectional  and  dangerous  institution.  To  a  manly  op 
position  and  constitutional  resistance  to  all  new  pro-slavery 
dogmas  and  all  perversions  of  our  great  Charter  of  Free 
dom,  the  Republicans  of  Maine  pledge  themselves  to  the 
end  of  the  struggle. 

At  the  very  outset  of  the  war,  Gov.  Washburne,  who  was 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  State,  committed  to  Mr.  Elaine's 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  85 

hands  many  important  trusts  which  His  Excellency  was 
pleased  to  state  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Blaine,  "were  discharged 
with  energy  and  promptitude,  and  I  believe  with  the  most 
scrupulous  fidelity  to  the  interests  of  the  State." 

Mr.  Blaine  made  strong  and  earnest  speeches  enjoining 
upon  every  lover  of  his  country  and  its  institutions  to  stand 
by  the  government  in  the  pending  struggle  for  self-preser 
vation.  He  contributed  largely  of  his  means  for  the  equip 
ment  of  volunteers  who  left  their  homes  to  defend  their 
country,  and  in  aid  to  their  families. 

During  the  progress  of  the  rebellion,  no  other  man  in 
Maine  did  more  in  aiding  the  State  authorities  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  General  Government  than  Mr.  Blaine. 
Animated  by  the  spirit  of  his  Revolutionary  ancestors,  his 
efforts  were  unremitting  in  keeping  alive  the  fires  of  patri 
otism  through  the  darkest  days  of  that  trying  ordeal  through 
which  the  Nation  passed,  and  in  raising  such  material  aid  as 
the  State  needed  and  must  have  to  meet  her  share  of  the 
responsibility  that  the  extraordinary  exigency  required. 
The  gravity  of  the  occasion  he  fully  realized,  but  never  for 
a  moment  was  his  faith  shaken  in  the  ultimate  preservation 
of  the  Union  by  a  loyal  people. 


86  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER 

Henceforth  it  was  Mr.  Elaine's  destiny  to  be  a  great  politi 
cal  leader.  His  acumen,  energy,  fertility  of  resource,  and 
immense  powers  propelled  him  into  public  life,  where  his 
nature  found  its  relaxations  if  not  indeed  pleasures.  When 
war  became  an  active  reality  and  there  were  two  flags  floating 
beneath  the  cerulean  that  covered  one  republic,  Mr.  Elaine 
raised  his  voice  with  Garrison,  Phillips,  Beecher,  Greeley, 
and  those  patriots  whose  grasp  of  mind  had  forecast  and 
measured  the  effects  of  freedom  among  that  long-suffering 
<  l.i-s  whose  conception  of  the  word  was  based  alone  on  delu 
sive  dreams.  He  favored  the  war  and  would  willingly  have 
gone  to  the  front,  but  for  the  persuasive  petitions  which 
poured  in  upon  him,  declaring  that  his  counsel  was  of  more 
importance  to  the  nation  than  his  fighting  strength  was  to  the 
army,  that  hundreds  of  thousands  stood  with  willing  and 
anxious  hearts  ready  to  respond  to  the  nation's  call  for  armed 
men,  while  there  were  few  with  wise  heads  and  honest  hearts 
left  to  guide  the  imperiled  ship  of  state.  He  therefore 
reluctantly  consented  to  place  his  services  where  the  public 
believed  they  would  be  most  valuable,  and  in  1862  he  was 
nominated  for  Congress  from  the  Kennebec  District  of  Maine 
and  elected  by  more  than  3,000  majority.  Thus  began  his 
political  career  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  where  his  power 
was  soon  made  manifest  by  the  wisdom  which  he  displayed 
at  a  time  when  wise  and  courageous  men  were  so  badly  needed 
to  sustain  our  bleeding  country  by  allaying  the  doubts  of  the 
helpless  and  hopeless. 


JAMES    G.    BLATNE.  87 

The  superior  ability  and  high  qualifications  of  Mr.  Blaine 
drew  towards  him  the  spontaneous  and,  as  it  proved,  unan 
imous  support  of  the  friends  of  the  National  Administration 
in  the  Kennebec  district,  where  he  resided.  As  a  member 
of  the  State  Legislature,  Chairman  of  the  Republican  State 
Committee,  and  in  other  important  places  of  political  trust, 
he  had  shown  himself  more  than  equal  to  the  expectations  of 
his  friends  and  the  public.  He  was  now  presented  as  a  candi 
date  to  represent  the  Third  District  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
and  at  Waterville,  at  a  convention  of  Republicans,  held  July 
8,  1862,  he  received  an  unanimous  nomination.  This  honor 
was  accepted  by  Mr.  Blaine  in  a  speech  as  follows,  after  he 
had  been  informed  of  the  nomination  and  was  tendered 
mutual  congratulations : 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

I  am  here  to  acknowledge  with  profound  and  heartfelt 
thanks  the  honor  which  you  have  conferred  upon  me  as  your 
candidate  for  Representative  in  the  Thirty-Eighth  Con 
gress.  The  unanimity  of  your  action  to  me  is  one  of  its 
most  embarrassing  features,  for  it  implies  a  confidence  in 
my  fitness  for  the  position,  which  I  may  well  distrust  my 
ability  to  respond  to  and  justify.  I  can  only  pledge  my 
best  intentions  and  my  most  earnest  efforts  to  serve  the  con 
stituency  of  the  Third  District  faithfully  and  zealously, 
should  the  nomination  made  this  day  be  ratified  at  the  polls. 

I  do  not  wish  to  indulge  in  profuse  promises,  for  the  Rep 
resentative  should  be  tested,  I  think,  rather  by  his  acts 
than  by  his  professions.  I  deem  it  my  duty,  however,  to 
say  that  if  I  am  called  to  a  seat  in  Congress,  I  shall  go  there 
with  a  determination  to  stand  heartily  and  unreservedly  by 
the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  the  success  of 
that  administration,  in  the  good  Providence  of  God,  rests, 


88  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

I  solemnly  believe,  the  fate  of  the  Union.  If  we  cannot 
subdue  the  rebellion  through  the  agency  of  the  Administra 
tion,  there  is  no  other  human  power  to  which  we  can  turn. 
Hence  I  repeat,  that  I  shall  conceive  it  my  duty,  as  your 
faithful  Representative,  to  be  unswerving  in  my  adherence 
to  the  policy  and  the  measures  which  the  President  in  his 
wisdom  may  adopt. 

In  this  way  alone,  gentlemen,  can  we  preserve  that  unity 
of  action  among  the  loyal  people  so  essential  to  the  main 
tenance  of  our  nationality.  That  unity  once  broken,  we 
can  have  no  well  founded  hope  of  success.  We  hear  a 
great  deal  of  talk  about  the  base  of  operations  in  the  war; 
at  one  time  on  the  York  river,  at  another  on  the  Pamunky, 
and  still  another  on  the  James.  There  is  one  base  of  opera 
tions  stronger  than  all  these,  and  that  is  in  the  united  hearts 
and  the  united  action  of  the  loyal  people.  That  once 
broken,  all  other  bases  of  operation  are  gone. 

The  great  object  with  us  all  is  to  subdue  the  rebellion — 
speedily,  effectually  and  finally.  In  our  march  to  that  end 
we  must  crush  all  intervening  obstacles.  If  slavery  or  any 
other  "institution"  stands  in  the  way,  it  must  be  removed. 
Perish  all  things  else,  the  national  life  must  be  saved.  My 
individual  convictions  of  what  may  be  needful  are  perhaps 
far  in  advance  of  those  entertained  by  some,  and  less  radical 
than  those  conscientiously  held  by  others.  Whether  they 
are  the  one  or  the  other,  however,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  an 
attempt  to  carry  them  out  until  it  can  be  done  with  the  re 
sistless  energy  of  the  loyal  masses.  I  think  myself  the 
masses  are  rapidly  adopting  the  idea  that  to  smite  the  re 
bellion,  its  malignant  cause  must  be  smitten,  and  that  to  pre 
serve  the  Union  all  agencies  willing  to  work  for  its  pre 
servation  must  be  freely  and  energetically  used.  That 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  89 

seems  to  be  the  conclusion  to  which  in  due  time  the  nation 
will  arrive.  Perhaps  we  are  slow  in  coming  to  it,  and  it 
may  be  that  we  are  even  now  receiving  our  severe  chastise 
ment  for  not  more  readily  accepting  the  teachings  of  Provi 
dence.  It  was  the  tenth  plague  which  softened  the  heart  of 
Pharaoh  and  caused  him  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free. 
That  plague  was  the  sacrifice  of  the  first-born  in  each  house 
hold.  With  the  sanguinary  battlefields,  whose  records  of 
death  we  are  just  reading,  I  ask  you  in  the  language  of 
another,  "how  far  off  are  we  from  the  day  when  our  house 
holds  will  have  paid  that  penalty  to  offended  heaven?" 

The  rebels  must,  I  think,  be  deprived  of  the  invaluable  aid 
of  their  slaves,  and  that  should  be  turned  to  the  benefit  of 
the  Union  cause.  Shall  it  be  done?  Answer  ye  loyal 
men  of  the  North  ! — shall  it  be  done?  The  decision  rests 
with  you. 

Thanking  you  again,  gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  for 
the  honor  you  have  bestowed  upon  me,  I  close  as  I  began, 
by  declaring  that  as  a  Representative,  if  so  elected,  I  shall 
best  serve  your  interests  and  most  faithfully  reflect  your 
wishes  by  supporting,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  the  policy  and 
the  measures  of  the  National  Administration. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  elected  by  the  largest  majority  ever  polled 
in  the  district  for  a  Congressional  candidate. 

In  August,  18G4,  Mr.  Elaine  was  nominated  for  a  second 
term  to  Congress,  from  his  district,  by  a  unanimous  vote. 
In  reply  to  the  letter  informing  him  of  his  nomination,  he 
accepted  it  in  the  following  letter  to  the  chairman  of  the 
Convention : 

AUGUSTA,  AUGUST  20,  1864. 
Gen.  J.  R.  Bachelder: 
DEAR  SIR: — I  am  in  receipt  of  your  favor  formally  ad- 


90  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

vising  me  that  on  the  10th  instant,  the  Union  Convention  of 
tin-  Third  District  unanimously  nominated  me  for  re-elec 
tion  as  Representative  in  Congress.  For  this  generous 
action,  as  well  as  for  the  cordial  manner  attending  it,  and 
the  very  complimentary  phrases  in  which  it  is  conveyed,  I 
am  under  profound  obligations.  It  is  far  easier  for  me  to 
find  the  inspiring  cause  of  such  favor  and  such  unanimity  in 
the  personal  partiality  of  friends,  than  in  any  merits  or 
services  which  I  may  justly  claim  as  my  own. 

In  nominating  me  as  a  Union  candidate,  and  pledging  me 
to  no  other  platform,  you  place  me  on  the  precise  ground 
I  desire  to  occupy.  The  controlling  and  absorbing  issue 
before  the  American  people  is  whether  the  Federal  Union 
shall  txj  saved  or  lost.  In  comparison  with  that,  all  other 
issues  and  controversies  are  subordinate,  and  entitled  to 
consideration  just  in  the  degree  that  they  may  influence  the 
end  which  Washington  declared  to  be  "the  primary  object 
of  patriotic  desire."  To  maintain  the  Union,  a  gigantic 
war  has  been  carried  on,  now  in  the  fourth  year  of  its  dura 
tion,  and  the  resources  of  the  country,  both  in  men  and 
money,  have  been  freely  expended  in  support  of  it.  This 
war  was  not  a  matter  of  choice  with  the  government,  unless 
it  was  prepared  to  surrender  its  power  over  one- half  of  its 
territory  and  incur  all  the  hazards  of  anarchy  throughout 
the  other  half.  It  was  begun  by  those  who  sought  to  over 
throw  the  Federal  authority.  It  should  be  ended  the  very 
day  that  authority  is  recognized  and  re-established  through 
out  its  rightful  domain. 

The  desire  for  peace  after  the  sufferings  and  trials  of  the 
past  three  years  is  natural.  Springing  from  the  very  in 
stincts  of  humanity,  it  is  irrepressible.  The  danger  to  be 
avoided  is  that  in  aiming  to  attain  peace  we  shall  be  de- 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  91 

ceived  by  the  shadow,  and  thus  fail  to  secure  the  substance. 
Peace  on  the  basis  of  disunion  is  a  delusion.  It  is  no  peace 
at  all.  It  is  but  the  beginning  of  war — more  wasteful, 
more  destructive,  more  cruel  than  we  have  thus  far  experi 
enced.  Those  who  cry  for  the  "  immediate  cessation  of 
war"  are  the  best  advocates  for  its  endless  continuance. 
They  mean  peace  by  the  recognition  of  rebel  independence, 
and  rebel  independence  is  absolutely  incompatible  with 
peace. 

Among  the  cherished  errors  of  those  who  are  willing  to 
acknowledge  the  Southern  Confederacy  as  the  basis  of 
peace,  the  most  fatal  is  that  which  assumes  the  continued 
union,  harmony  and  power  of  the  loyal  States.  This  cannot 
be.  Contentions  and  strifes  would  at  once  spring  up.  The 
border  States  would  be  convulsed  with  a  fierce  contest  as  to 
which  section  they  would  adhere  to.  The  Pacific  slope,  to 
escape  the  dangers  and  constant  embroilments  which  it  could 
neither  control  nor  avoid,  would  naturally  seek  for  inde 
pendence;  and  the  Northwest,  if  it  did  not  follow  the  ex 
ample,  would  demand  such  a  reconstruction  of  the  govern 
ment  of  the  remaining  States  as  would  make  our  further 
connection  therewith  undesirable  if  not  absolutely  intoler 
able.  In  short,  disunion  upon  the  line  of  the  revolted 
States  would  involve  the  total  and  speedy  disintegration  of 
the  Federal  Government,  and  we  would  find  ourselves 
launched  on  "a  sea  of  troubles"  with  no  pilot  capable  of 
holding  the  helm,  and  no  chart  to  guide  us  on  our  perilous 
voyage . 

There  is  indeed  but  one  path  of  safety,  and  that  is  like 
wise  the  path  of  honor  and  of  interest.  We  must  preserve 
the  Union.  Differ  as  we  may  as  to  the  measures  necessary  to 
that  end,  there  should  be  no  difference  among  loyal  men  as 


!»2  L1FIO    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

to  the  end  itself.  No  sacrifice  we  can  make  in  our  efforts 
to  save  the  Union  is  comparable  with  that  we  should  make 
in  losing  it.  He  is  the  enemy  to  both  sections  and  to  the 
common  cause  of  humanity  and  civilization  who  is  willing  to 
conclude  the  war  by  surrendering  the  Union;  and  the  most 
alarming  development  of  the  times  is  the  disposition  mani- 
tV.-tcd  by  leading  journals,  by  public  men,  and  by  political 
conventions  in  the  loyal  States  to  accept  this  conclusion. 
For  myself,  in  the  limited  sphere  of  my  influence,  I  shall 
never  consent  to  such  delusive  settlement  of  our  troubles. 
Nfither  at  the  polls  as  an  American  citizen,  nor  in  Con- 
givss  as  a  Representative  (should  I  again  be  chosen)  will  I 
r\vr  give  a  vote  admitting  even  the  possibility  of  ultimate 
failure  in  this  great  struggle  for  nationality. 

Very  respectfully  your  obd't  servant, 

J.  G.  ELAINE. 

During  the  first  term  of  his  long  career  as  Representative 
.it-  had  for  col  leagues  such  men  as  Elihu  B.  Washburn,  Owen 
Lovejoy,  George  W.  Julian,  Godlove  S.  Orth,  Schuyler 
Colfax,  James  F.  Wilson,  William  B.  Allison,  John  A. 
Kasson,  Alexander  H.  Rice,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  William 
Windom,  F.  P.  Blair,  jr.,  James  Brooks,  Erastus  Corning, 
Reuben  E.  Fenton,  Francis  Kernan,  George  H.  Pendleton, 
Robert  C.  Schenck,  James  A.  Garfield,  Samuel  J.  Randall, 
William  D.  Kelley,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  G.  W.  Scofield,  and 
many  other  distinguished  men.  Among  these  he  soon  was 
recognized  as  a  man  whose  influence  was  sure  to  be  felt  and 
to  increase  with  time. 

His  first  reputation  in  the  Lower  House  of  Congress  was 
that  of  an  exceedingly  industrious  committeeman.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Post  Office  and  Military  Committees,  and 
of  the  Committees  on  Appropriation  and  Rules.  He  paid 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  93 

close  attention  to  the  business  of  the  committees,  and  took 
an  active  part  in  the  debates  of  the  House,  manifesting 
practical  ability  and  genius  for  details.  The  first  remark 
able  speech  which  he  made  in  Congress  was  on  the  subject 
of  the  assumption  by  the  General  Government  of  the  war 
debts  of  the  States,  in  the  course  of  which  he  urged  that  the 
North  was  abundantly  able  to  carry  on  the  war  to  a  success 
ful  conclusion.  This  vigorous  speech  created  such  enthusi 
asm  that  200,000  copies  of  it  were  circulated  in  1864  by  the 
Republican  party,  as  a  campaign  document,  and  it  did  very 
much  to  sustain  the  waning  courage  of  Northern  people. 
A  few  days  after  the  delivery  of  this  masterly  speech,  a' 
question  was  raised  in  Congress  that  caused  several  allusions 
to  the  sentiments  which  Mr.  Elaine  therein  expressed, 
Thaddeus  Stevens  took  this  occasion  to  say  that  "Elaine, 
of  Maine,  has  shown  as  great  aptitude  and  ability  for  the 
higher  walks  of  public  life  as  any  man  that  has  come  to  Con 
gress  during  his  term  of  service.  " 

During  the  first  term  of  Mr.  Elaine's  service  in  Congress, 
as  a  member  of  the  Post  Office  Committee,  he  actively  co 
operated  with  the  chairman,  Hon.  John  B.  Alley,  and  the 
late  James  Brooks,  of  New  York,  in  encouraging  and  secur 
ing  the  system  of  postal  cars  now  in  use.  Distributing  df 
the  mails  on  the  cars  had  not  been  previously  attempted  oil 
any  considerable  scale,  and  the  first  appropriation  for  the 
enlarged  service  was  not  made  without  opposition.  With 
becoming  modesty,  rather  waiting  to  become  familiar  with 
the  rules  of  Congress  before  thrusting  himself  into  conspic 
uous  prominence,  Mr.  Blaine  served  his  first  term,  eliciting 
praise  for  all  his  actions  from  both  parties. 

In  1864  Mr.  Blaine  was  re-elected  to  Congress  by  ah 
overwhelming  majority,  and  serving  in  this,  the  thirty- 


01  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

ninth  session,  he  made  his  power  and  political  wisdom  felt 
It  was  in  this  Congress  that  Mr.  Elaine  came  into  contaci 
with  Hon.  Roscoe  Conkling,  the  brilliant  meteor  that  rose 
in  New  York  and  flashed  its  splendor  over  both  halls  of  legis 
lation. 

It  was  toward  the  close  of  the  war  when  drafting  ha( 
caused  disorder  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  and  everj 
State  and  constituency  wanted  to  be  credited,  right  01 
wrong,  with  as  many  men  as  possible.  James  B.  Fry  wa< 
Provost  Marshal  General  under  Secretary  Stanton.  H< 
was  understood  to  be  a  citizen  of  Maine — possibly  fron 
Elaine's  own  district.  Conkling  took  Fry  to  task  for  no' 
having  given  due  credit  to  the  State  of  New  York  in  the 
matter  of  troops.  Elaine  defended  the  gentleman,  anc 
Conkling,  impatient  then  as  now  of  opposition,  fell  on  hin 
expecting  to  crush  him.  He  met  his  match,  however 
From  that  wordy  contest  he  retired  in  disorder  with  an  ep 
ithet  ringing  in  his  ears  which  he  can  never  forget,  mud 
less  forgive.  The  two  men  were  bitter  enemies  from  thai 
time  forth.  Mr.  Elaine  made  many  speeches  during  the 
period  of  reconstruction,  which  attracted  a  great  deal  of  at 
tention  and  spread  his  fame  as  an  orator.  In  the  Forty- 
first,  Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses  he  was  elect 
ed  Speaker  of  the  House  by  the  Republicans.  It  has  beer 
said  that  no  man  since  Clay,  presided  with  such  absolute 
familiarity  with  the  rules  of  the  House.  His  knowledge  oJ 
parliamentary  law  was  instinctive  and  complete,  and  hi.* 
administration  of  it  so  fair  that  both  sides  of  the  House 
applauded  his  impartiality.  He  managed  that  most  turbu 
lent  of  all  legislative  bodies  with  an  iron  hand. 


JAMES    U.    ELAINE.  95 


CHAPTEK    IX. 

Upon  his  return  to  Congress  in  1866,  Mr.  Bltdne  bore  a 
conspicuous  part  in  the  legislation  on  measures  of  re-con 
struction.  Early  in  January  of  that  year  he  introduced  a 
resolution,  which  was  referred  to  the  Reconstruction  Com 
mittee  and  afterwards  made  the  basis  of  that  part  of  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  regulating  the 
mutter  of  Congressional  Representation.  Previous  to  this 
resolution  it  had  been  the  tendency  to  base  representation 
directly  on  the  voting  population;  but  this  was  entirely 
changed  by  the  adoption  of  the  amendment  as  before  stated. 

Mr.  Elaine  also  made  himself  prominent  in  the  Recon 
struction  legislation  by  proposing  what  is  known  as  the 
"  Elaine  Amendment"  to  Mr.  Stevens'  Military  Bill. 

In  1867  Mr.  Pendleton  proposed  a  measure  looking  to 
wards  paying  the  National  debt  in  Greenbacks,  and  advo 
cated  his  bill  with  such  vigor  and  specious  argument  that 
many  conversions  to  his  theory  of  justice  in  the  premises 
were  made.  It  was  the  incentive  which  led  to  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  Greenback  party,  and  but  for  the  wonderfully 
able  speech  which  Mr.  Elaine  made  in  opposition  to  the  spirit 
and  effect  of  such  a  policy  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
it  would  have  prevailed. 

Mr.  Pendleton' s  scheme  had  in  it  much  that  commended 
its  purpose  to  the  people ;  it  promised  a  speedy  discharge 
of  all  the  war  debts  by  a  mere  issuance  of  paper  money  from 
the  National  printing  press,  and  vested  the  right  of  so  doing 
upon  the  assertion  that  greenbacks  saved  the  country  and 


IK;  i  IFF:  AND  PUBLIC  SERVICES  OF 

our  own  people  were  compelled  to  take  them  as  legal  ten 
ders.  Mr.  Elaine  not  only  saw  the  sophistry  of  this  argu 
ment,  but  his  great  grasp  of  thought  at  once  conceived  the 
reasoning  that  would  overwhelm  it.  In  December  of  1867, 
therefore,  he  made  a  speech  in  opposition  to  the  Pendleton 
theory,  which  not  only  defeated  the  scheme,  but  established 
a  financial  doctrine  that  has  been  adhered  to  by  the  Repub 
lican  party  ever  since.  In  closing  that  famous  speech  Mr. 
Biaine  spoke  as  follows: 

"The  remedy  for  our  financial  troubles,  Mr.  Chairman, 
will  not  be  found  in  a  superabundance  of  depreciated  paper 
money.  It  lies  in  the  opposite  direction;  and  the  sooner 
the  nation  finds  itself  on  a  specie  basis,  the  sooner  will  the 
public  treasury  be  freed  from  embarrassment,  and  private 
business  relieved  from  discouragement.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  entering  upon  a  reckless  and  boundless  issue  of  legal  ten 
ders,  with  their  consequent  depression,  if  not  destruction  of 
value,  let  us  set  resolutely  to_  work  and  innl^p  t.hngft- •******!  y 
in  circulatjun  rfjunLjx>_gojnany  gojdjlollaxs.  When  that  re 
sult  shall  be  accomplished,  we  can  proceed  to  pay  our  five- 
twenties  either  in  coin  or  paper,  for  one  would  be  the  equiva 
lent  of  the  other.  But  to  proceed  deliberately  on  a  scheme 
of  depreciating  our  legal  tenders,  and  then  pressing  the 
holders  of  government  bonds  to  accept  them  in  payment, 
would  resemble  in  point  of  honor  the  policy  of  a  merchant, 
who,  with  abundant  resources  and  prosperous  business, 
should  devise  a  plan  for  throwing  discredit  on  his  own  notes 
with  the  view  of  having  them  bought  up  at  a  discount  ruin 
ous  to  the  holders  and  immensely  profitable  to  his  own  knav 
ish  pocket.  This  comparison  may  faintly  illustrate  the 
wrongfulne.<|&  of  the  policy,  but  not  its  consummate  folly; 
for  in  the  case  of  the  government,  unlike  the  merchant,  the 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  97 

stern  necessity  would  recur  of  making  good  in  the  end, 
by  the  payment  of  hard  coin,  all  the  discount  that  might  be 
gained  by  the  temporary  substitution  of  paper? 

"  Discarding  all  such  schemes  as  at  once  unworthy  and 
unprofitable,  let  us  direct  our  policy  steadily,  but  not  rash 
ly,  toward  the  resumption  of  specie  payment.  And  when 
we  have  attained  that  end — easily  attainable  at  no  distant 
day  if  the  proper  policy  be  pursued — we  can  all  unite  on 
some  honorable  plan  for  the  redemption  of  the  five-twenty 
bonds,  and  the  issuing  instead  thereof  a  new  series  of  bonds 
which  can  be  more  favorably  placed  at  a  lower  rate  of  inter 
est.  When  we  shall  have  reached  the  specie  basis,  the  value 
of  United  States  securities  will  be  so  high  in  the  money 
markets  of  the  world  that  we  can  command  our  own  terms. 
We  can  then  call  in  our  five-twenties  according  to  the  very 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  bond,  and  adjust  a  new  loan  that  will 
be  eagerly  sought  for  by  capitalists,  and  will  be  free  from 
those  elements  of  discontent  that  in  some  measure  surround 
the  existing  funded  debt  of  the  country." 


98  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  X. 

At  the  opening  of  the  XLI  Congress  the  Republican 
caucus  nominated  Mr.  Elaine  for  speaker,  by  acclamation, 
and  he  was  elected  by  a  vote  of  136  to  57  cast  for  his  op 
ponent,  Mr.  Kerr.  So  well  did  he  perform  the  exacting 
duties  of  the  office  that  he  was  re-elected,  without  opposi 
tion,  Speaker  of  the  XLII  and  XLIII  Congresses.  In  that 
position  his  quickness  of  perception,  decision  of  manner, 
thorough  knowledge  of  parliamentary  law  and  usages,  as 
well  as  impartial  and  judicial  mind,  aided  by  a  clear  voice 
and  magnetic  presence,  made  him  the  greatest  presiding  of- 
ticer  since  Clay. 

The  political  reaction  of  1874  returned  a  Democratic  ma 
jority  to  the  House  and  so  disconcerted  the  Republicans  that 
but  for  Mr.  Elaine's  great  leadership  there  might  have  been 
serious  consequences  to  the  party.  The  decided  majority 
which,  for  the  first  time  since  the  war,  gave  the  Democrats 
any  real  power  or  patronage,  emboldened  them  to  a  radical 
policy  and  gage  of  battle.  Mr.  Elaine,  like  a  plumed 
knight,  indeed,  threw  down  his  glove  and  accepted  the  chal 
lenge  in  the  name  of  universal  liberty  and  of  the  loyal 
North.  Who  so  well  prepared  for  the  joist  as  he?  Into  the 
arena  he  flung  himself  like  a  gladiator  knowing  nothing  of 
defeai, ;  upon  his  bright  armour  fell  only  harmless  thrusts, 
while  he  hurled  at  those  who  threatened  legislation  hostile  to 

o 

public  interests,  thunderbolts  of  such  arguments  as  scattered 
his  foes  and  reversed  political  opinion  again. 

In  debate  no  man  of  the  day  can  measure  arms  with  Mr. 
Elaine,  his  knowledge  is  so  comprehensive,  his  language  so 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  99 

eloquent,  his  argument  so  convincing  and  his  person  so  mag 
netic.  As  a  gentleman  long  in  public  life,  and  familiar  with 
all  our  great  men  since  1840,  once  wrote: 

"  Mr.  Blaine  is  a  man  of  wonderful  talents,  so  general, 
extending  to  every  branch  of  human  knowledge,  that  few 
can  comprehend  his  greatness.  He  is  armed  for  every  en 
counter  and  apparently  unassailable  ;  you  cannot  conceive 
how  a  shot  should  pierce  him,  for  there  are  apparently  no 
joints  to  his  harness.  He  is  a  man  who  knows  what  the 
weather  was  yesterday  morning  in  Dakota,  what  new  policy 
Mexico  means  to  adopt,  on  what  day  of  the  week  the  16th  of 
December  proximo  will  fall,  who  is  chairman  of  the  School 
Committee  in  Kennebeck,  what  is  the  best  way  of  manag 
ing  the  public  debt,  together  with  all  other  interests  of  to 
day,  which  any  other  person  would  stagger  under.  How  he 
does  it,  nobody  knows.  He  is  always  in  his  seat.  He  must 
absorb  details  by  assimilation  at  his  finger  ends.  He  is  clear 
metal.  His  features  are  cast  in  a  mould;  his  attitudes  are 
those  of  a  bronze  figure;  his  voice  clinks  ;  and,  as  you  know, 
he  has  ideas  fixed  as  brass." 

Mr.  Blaine  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Maine,  July 
10,  1876,  to  be  United  States  Senator  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  resignation  of  Senator  Mo rrill,  who  then  be 
came  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He  was  subsequently  elected 
for  the  unexpired  term  and  for  the  ensuing  term  expiring 
in  1883.  On  his  appointment  he  wrote  to  the  people  of  his 
Congressional  District  a  farewell  address,  in  which  he  said: 

"  Beginning  with  1862  you  have  by  continuous  elections 
sent  me  as  your  representative  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  For  such  marked  confidence  I  have  endeavored  to 
return  the  most  zealous  and  devoted  service  in  my  power, 
and  it  is  certainly  not  without  a  feeling  of  pain  that  I  now 
surrender  a  trust  by  which  I  have  always  felt  so  signally 


100  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

honored.  It  has  been  my  boast  in  public  and  in  private 
that  no  man  on  the  floor  of  Congress  ever  represented  a 
constituency  more  distinguished  for  intelligence,  for  pat 
riotism,  for  public  and  personal  virtue.  The  cordial  sup 
port  you  have  so  uniformly  given  me  through  these  four 
teen  eventful  years  is  the  chief  honor  of  my  life.  In  closing 
the  intimate  relations  I  have  so  long  held  with  the  people 
of  this  district,  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to  know  that 
with  returning  health  I  shall  enter  upon  a  field  of  duty  in 
which  I  can  still  serve  them  in  common  with  the  larger  con 
stituency  of  which  they  form  a  part." 

Commenting  upon  his  elevation  to  the  Upper  House, 
The  Kennebeck  Journal,  well  representing  the  sentiment  of 
the  public  in  the  State,  said: 

"  Fourteen  years  ago,  standing  in  the  convention  at  which 
he  was  first  nominated,  Mr.  Blaine  pledged  himself  to  use 
his  best  services  for  the  district,  and  to  support  to  the  best 
of  his  ability  the  policy  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  subdue  the 
rebellion,  and  then  and  there  expressed  plainly  the  idea  that 
slavery  must  and  ought  to  be  abolished  to  save  the  Union. 
That  he  has  kept  his  pledge  faithfully  his  constituents  know 
and  feel,  and  the  records  of  Congress  attest.  To  this  dis 
trict  his  abilities  were  freely  given,  and  as  he  rose  in  honor 
in  the  House  and  in  the  public  estimation  he  reflected  honor 
and  gave  strength  to  the  constituency  that  supported  him. 
Every  step  he  made  in  advance  was  a  gain  for  them. 
It  was  a  grand  thing  for  this  district  to  have  as  its  Repre 
sentative  in  Congress  for  six  years  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
filling  the  place  next  in  importance  to  that  of  President  of 
the  United  States,  with  matchless  ability.  It  was  a  grander 
thing  when  he  took  the  lead  of  the  minority  in  the  House 
last  December,  routed  the  Democratic  majority,  and  drove 
back  in  dismay  the  ex-Confederates  who  were  intending  and 
expecting  through  the  advantage  they  had  already  gained  to 
Lrrasp  tin-  supreme  power  in  the  nation  and  wield  it  in  the 
interest  of  the  cause  of  secession  and  rebellion  revived.  For 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE. 


103 


what  he  has  done  as  their  Representative  in  Congress,  never 
will  this  Hid  District  of  Maine  forget  to  honor  the  name  of 
James  G.  Elaine.  It  will  live  in  the  hearts  of  this  people 
even  as  the  name  of  Henry  Clay  is  still  loved  by  the  people 
of  his  old  district  in  Kentucky.'* 


104  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XI. 

As  a  Senator,  Mr.  Elaine  was  even  more  conspicuous  than 
as  a  Congressman;  he  at  once  took  his  rightful  position 
among  the  leading  debaters  of  that  body,  and  before  twc 
years  of  his  term  had  been  served  he  was  recognized  as  the 
leader  of  the  Senate ;  not  only  was  he  a  political  leader  bul 
his  wisdom  for  conceiving  great  measures  was  exemplified 
by  his  introduction  and  advocacy  of  so  many  meritorious 
bills. 

The  prohibition  of  further  Chinese  immigration  was  pro 
posed  by  Representatives  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  a  bill  was 
introduced  with  that  intention.  Mr.  Elaine  gave  muct 
thought  to  the  measure,  studying  the  Chinese  question  from  t 
purely  public  policy  standpoint;  he  was  not  unmindful  oi 
the  inconsistent  features  of  a  bill  that  discriminated  against 
a  certain  class  of  foreigners  who  sought  an  asylum  in  oui 
heaven-blest  country.  Those  who  were  ignorant  of  the 
vicious  influences  which  emanate  from  unrestricted  inter 
course  between  large  numbers  of  Chinese  and  our  poorei 
population,  regarded  the  measure  as  unjust,  and  when  Mr 
Elaine  raised  his  voice  in  favor  of  Chinese  exclusion  fron 
our  shores  he  was  called  a  demagogue.  His  deep  study  o: 
the  question  led  him  to  speak  freely  and  with  justice  to  oui 
people,  against  the  iniquity  of  inviting  to  our  shores  a  rac< 
that  is  steeped  in  beastiality,  degraded  in  every  feature  o: 
their  religious  and  civil  life,  and  whose  customs  menace  th< 
freedom  and  happiness  of  our  laboring  classes.  In  thu: 
championing  the  bill  Mr.  Elaine  showed  that  he  was  ai 
American,  loving  American  customs  and  jealous  of  th< 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  105 

moral  and  political  liberties  of  our  people.  His  arguments 
prevailed  despite  the  malicious  cries  of  less  informed  oppo 
nents,  and  the  measure  was  adopted. 

Let  it  also  be  said,  and  repeated,  that  Mr.  Elaine  voted 
against  the  Electoral  Commission,  which,  though  it  was  a 
Republican  plan  looking  to  the  success  of  the  party  in  a 
doubtful  election,  had  in  it  the  elements  of  injustice  and  the 
possibility  of  fraud;  he  therefore  virtuously  opposed  it,  and 
is  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  every  patriot  for  so  doing.  He 
also  opposed  the  Bland  Silver  Bill  in  a  speech  of  great  elo 
quence  and  power,  and  demanded  the  coinage  of  an  honest 
silver  dollar. 

The  question  of  a  restoration  of  our  carrying  trade 
upon  the  high  seas  also  received  his  earnest  attention,  and 
his  recommendations  upon  this  matter  again  showed  the 
patriotism  of  his  American  spirit.  So  ably  did  he  advocate 
a  liberal  policy  towards  American  shipping,  that  he  was  in 
vited  to  address  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  and 
accepting,  delivered  one  of  the  most  powerful  speeches  that 
was  ever  listened  to  by  a  commercial  body.  It  was  pub 
lished  in  nearly  all  the  trade  journals  and  commented  on 
largely  by  foreign  papers ;  the  principles  enunciated  in  that 
address  are  now  applied  by  all  advocates  of  free  bottoms, 
and  are  leading  to  advanced  measures  for  encouraging  ship 
building  in  America,  as  well  as  construction  of  American 
vessels  abroad. 

Mr.  Blaine's  sagacity,  coolness  and  wisdom  as  a  party 
leader  were  conspicuously  demonstrated  in  the  measures  he 
took  to  circumvent  the  Democratic  plot  for  stealing  the 
State  government  of  Maine  in  1879,  by  fraudulently  counting 
out  Republican  members  of  the  Legislature.  All  the  ad 
vantages,  save  that  of  being  in  the  right,  were  with  his 


i()'I  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

opponeraents  at  the  start.  His  supporters  were  eager  to  re 
sort  to  arms  as  the  only  means  of  obtaining  justice,  but 
they  were  restrained  by  him.  His  plan  was  first  to  arouse 
public  sentiment  by  exposing  the  enormity  of  the  plot,  next 
to  tangle  up  his  antagonists  in  a  web  of  contradictions,  and 
then,  after  obtaining  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court,  to 
seize  and  hold  the  legislative  halls.  It  was  completely  suc 
cessful,  and  the  conspiracy  became  impotent  and  ridiculous. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  107 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  able  manner  in  which  Mr.  Elaine  conducted  himself 
as  leader  and  legislator  endeared  him  to  the  people  until  he 
has  everywhere  been  hailed  as  a  second  Henry  Clay.  Pol 
iticians  oppose  him  because  he  is  so  far  the  superior  of 
them  all ;  on  every  field  he  has  fought  as  the  people's  cham 
pion,  not  only  regardful  of  public  interest  in  advocating 
beneficent  measures,  but  he  has  been  an  able  and  indispen 
sable  counsellor  whose  advice  has  ever  tended  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  his  party  and  of  the  masses. 

When  the  traditions  of  Republican  government  deman 
ded  a  successor  to  President  Grant  in  1876,  the  voice  of 
millions  cried  out  vociferously  for  James  G.  Blaine ;  it 
swelled  up  into  one  grand,  popular  chorus  that  swept  every 
State  where  Republican  instincts  and  aspirations  were  fos 
tered.  Had  the  constitution  permitted  an  election  of 
President  by  popular  vote  Mr.  Blaine  would  have  undoubt 
edly  been  carried  into  the  executive  chair  on  an  irresistible 
wave  of  immense  majority.  Submitting  his  claims  to  a 
convention,  however,  in  which  the  elements  were  so  mixed 
up  that  popular  voice  was  wholly  ignored,  Mr.  Blaine  was 
sacrificed  for  base  interests,  which  will  never  be  forgotten, 
giving  birth  to  an  administration  that  was  emasculated  by 
selfish  greed  and  indecision. 

The  candidates  opposed  to  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  convention 
were  Oliver  P.  Morton,  B.  H.  Bristow,  RoscoeConkling,  John 
F.  Hartranft  and  Rutherford  B.  Hayes.  When  Mr.  Blaine 
was  placed  in  nomination  by  that  wizard  of  eloquence,  that 


10S  LIFK    AM)    ITIU.ir    SKRVICES    OF 

ineomparably  great  orator,  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  whose  words 
Hashed  out  with  meteoric  splendor,  the  very  country  cheered 
with  delight  and  enthusiasm,  fondly  anticipating  that  their 
great  leader  would  carry  his  principles  and  wisdom  into  the 
White  House.  But  it  was  not  destined  to  be  so.  On  the 
first  ballot  Mr.  Elaine  received  291  votes  of  the  total  755, 
and  gradually  gained  until  the  seventh  ballot,  when  there 
were  cast  for  him  351  votes,  or  within  27  votes  of  a  ma 
jority.  The  politicians,  embittered  against  him  for  reasons 
already  explained,  then  seeing  that  the  man  of  brains  and 
energy  would  certainly  receive  the  nomination  unless  they 
could  form  a  combination,  schemed  until  their  purpose  was 
accomplished,  and  R.  B.  Hayes  became  the  nominee.  The 
people  were  worse  than  disappointed,  they  were  chagrined, 
and  could  not  give  their  support  to  the  ticket  with  that 
hearty  good  will  which  had  characterized  their  loyalty  in 
other  campaigns.  The  drums  were  beaten,  but  they  were 
muffled;  the  fifes  echoed  in  the  march,  but  the  notes  trem 
bled  and  failed  to  cheer;  there  was  the  tread  of  campaign 
clubs,  but  the  ranks  were  quiet  and  the  men  did  not  wave 
their  hats  and  banners  like  heroes  marching  to  victory. 

But  that  gallant  patriot,  the  generous  American,  did  not 
skulk  into  his  tent  and  lie  down  to  dreams  of  conquest;  he 
did  not  tell  the  story  of  his  defeat  and  invite  compassion,  or 
with  spiteful  cast  of  thought  secretly  pray  that  his  loss  might 
be  compensated  by  Republican  defeat.  But,  ''like  a  plumed 
•  knight,  like  an  armed  warrior,"  he  bore  the  flag  of  his  party 
into  the  fray  and  fought  with  valor  and  powerful  energy  for 
his  triumphant  rival.  Who  ever  heard  that  Jim  Blaine  bolted 
a  nomination?  Satisfied  with  the  wisdom  of  many,  though 
opposing  his  own  judgment,  Mr.  Blaine  has  ever  been  a  sol 
dier  in  the  ranks;  wherever  duty  called  him  he  responded, 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  109 

never  with  reluctant,  school- boy  questioning,  but  with  quick 
step  and  brave  heart,  trusting  to  his  conception  of  the  right 
for  approval.  Mr.  Blaine  gave  his  earnest  support  to  Hayes 
and  Wheeler,  and  I  can  say  without  fear  of  contradiction, 
that  but  for  this  support  a  Democratic  President  would  have 
been  inaugurated.  The  doubtful  character  of  that  election 
was  not  because  the  Democratic  ranks  had  been  recruited, 
but  because  so  many  Republicans  refused  to  vote  lest  it 
might  be  construed  as  an  approval  of  the  means  employed  to 
prevent  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Blaine. 


110  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

In  1880  it  became  necessary  for  the  Republicans  to  again 
choose  their  National  standard  bearers.  The  party  had  main 
tained  its  strength  despite  the  fickle,  vascilating  policy 
which  characterized  the  administration.  Mr.  Hayes  had  vetoed 
one  of  the  most  important  measures  that  had  passed  Con 
gress  since  the  war,  the  substitution  of  three  and  one-half 
per  cent  bonds  for  those  then  outstanding  bearing  four  and 
five  per  cent.  It  was  a  great  mistake,  not  of  the  Republi 
can  party,  but  of  the  President,  yet  the  party  as  a  whole 
was  compelled  to  bear  the  odium.  People  of  the  North  met 
together  at  corners,  in  public  stores,  or  by  the  way-side,  and 
discussed  the  situation.  They  were  nearly  all  for  Elaine, 
but  the  shameful  swindle  in  1876,  at  Cincinnati,  caused  them 
to  doubt ;  they  asked  of  one  another,  how  can  the  people's 
voice  be  heard  when  there  is  so  much  clamor  from  the  poli 
ticians?  Nevertheless,  swelling  the  demand  until  it  sounded 
louder  than  before,  the  people  cried,  "give  us  Elaine." 
The  cohorts  of  the  various  candidates  assembled  in  Chicago 
with  Grant  and  Elaine  in  the  front.  There  was  no  question 
as  to  whom  the  people  wanted,  for  the  popular  demand  was 
unmistakably  for  Elaine,  but  the  third  term  idea  reared  its 
head  for  the  first  time  in  American  history,  and  with  such 
pertinacity  that  its  supporters  could  not  be  induced  to  waver 
in  their  adherence  to  Grant.  This  was  the  introduction  of 
an  unknown  quantity  into  the  convention  which  had  to  be 
represented  by  a  "dark  horse."  The  balloting  lasted  for 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  Ill 

two  days,  and  developed  great  excitement.  Grant's  sup 
porters  stood  steadfast  and  on  the  thirty-sixth,  the  last  bal 
lot,  gave  him  306  votes.  Blaine  started  with  284,  and  his 
vote  varied  but  little,  reaching  285  on  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  ballots.  Mr.  Garfield  had  but  one  vote  on  the 
first  ballot,  but  gradually  gained  until  on  the  thirty-sixth, 
when  seeing  that  their  favorite  could  not  win,  the  Blaine 
strength  was  cast  for  Garfield,  the  first  break  occurring  in 
the  Wisconsin  delegation. 

Although  again  defeated  in  his  laudable  ambition,  Mr. 
Blaine  accepted  the  nomination  of  Garfield  as  a  wise  selec 
tion,  and  threw  all  his  energies  into  the  campaign  to  secure 
his  election.  He  had  been  an  intimate  friend  of  Garfield' s  for 
twenty  years,  the  greater  portion  of  which  time  they  had 
spent  together  in  the  halls  of  legislation.  There  were  mu 
tual  confidences  between  them  and  Mr.  Blaine  was  really  re 
joiced  at  the  triumph  of  his  friend. 

Every  one  recalls  the  spirit  of  the  campaign  of  1880;  the 
drums  beat  with  merry  rattle  and  fifes  thrilled  the  footsteps 
of  parading  men ;  the  graduate  of  the  tow-path-  with  life  so 
romatic  because  it  had  been  such  a  hard  and  disadvantageous 
one,  enthused  the  country  anew.  Every  soldier  fell  into  the 
ranks  again  and  flung  to  the  wind  the  emblem  of  his  hopes 
and  party  preference ;  on  those  banners  were  the  names  of 
Garfield  and  Arthur.  Mr.  Blaine  took  the  stump  with  the 
same  enthusiasm  which  characterized  his  support  of  Fremont, 
Lincoln  and  Grant.  The  hills  of  Maine  to  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  re-echoed  with  his  appeals  and  stirring  speeches. 
Indiana  needed  this  great  Ajax,  Ohio  cried  to  him,  "come 
over  into  Macedonia  and  help  us,"  Pennsylvania  begged  for 
his  services,  New  York  sent  appeals  for  his  sturdy  strength, 
and  so  each  doubtful  State  felt  the  need  of  his  effective  aid. 


112  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

To  all  these  requests  he  responded,  giving  his  whole  time, 
day  and  night,  with  brief  hours  only  for  tired  nature  to  re 
store  herself.  His  influence  and  eloquence  were  felt  by 
listening  thousands  who  sat  charmed  and  convinced  by  the 
Republican  principles  which  he  expounded. 

When  election  day  arrived,  old  and  young  patriots  fell 
into  rank  and  swelled  the  vote  forGarfied.  State  after  State 
dropped  into  line  until  there  was  secured  again,  for  the  sixth 
succession,  the  principles  and  policy  of  Republicanism. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  113 


CHAPTFR    XIV. 

When  in  November  of  1880 — after  the  election — General 
Garfield  decided  upon  a  visit  to  Washington,  Mr.  Elaine 
was  in  Bangor,  Me.,  where  he  received  a  note  from  General 
Garfield  appointing  an  interview  in  Washington  about 
November  24.  He  reached  the  capital  on  the  26th,  and  on 
the  afternoon  of  that  day  he  called  upon  the  President 
elect  at  the  latter 's  private  residence.  For  two  hours  they 
were  closeted  without  interruption  from  a  single  person. 
At  this  conference  General  Garfield,  without  reservation, 
tendered  the  State  Department  to  Mr.  Elaine.  When  Mr. 
Elaine  had  recovered  from  his  surprise,  he  replied:  "  General, 
I  was  hardly  prepared  for  this  tender  on  your  part.  I  do 
not  know  how  to  reply.  I  would  like  some  time  for 
reflection  and  consultation,  and  in  the  meantime  I  will  ad 
vise  you."  General  Garfield  then  and  there  urged  Mr. 
Elaine  to  accept,  but  he  made  no  binding  answer  at  the 
time.  Subsequently  Mr.  Elaine  had  a  conference  with  his 
closest  friends,  and  the  weight  of  their  testimony  was  that 
he  should  accept  the  place.  Said  he:  "Gentlemen,  I  am  in 
clined  to  accept  General  Garfield's  offer;  but  meanwhile  I 
will  for  a  very  short  period  still  further  hold  it  under  ad 
visement."  After  this  conference  with  his  friends,  the  fact 
that  General  Garfield  had  offered  the  Senator  the  portfolio 
of  State  was  communicated  to  one  or  two  of  Senator 
Elaine's  confidential  friends,  and  he  said:  "If  the  sentiment 
of  the  country  indorses  the  selection  General  Garfield  has 
made,  I  will  accept  the  office,  otherwise  not."  Early  in 


1 1  t  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

December  the  announcement  was  made  in  one  or  two  news 
papers,  directly  and  absolutely,  that  Senator  Elaine  had 
been  invited  by  General  Garfield  to  take  the  State  Depart 
ment.  It  soon  became  accepted  as  a  fact.  The  universal 
expression  of  newspaper  opinion  was  that  the  selection  was 
a  good  one.  Thereupon  Senator  Elaine  wrote  the  following 
letter  of  acceptance : 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  20,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  GARFIELD  :  Your  generous  invitation  to  enter 
your  Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  State  has  been  under  consider- 
tion  more  than  three  weeks.  The  thought  had  really  never 
occurred  to  my  mind  until  at  our  late  conference  you  pre 
sented  it  with  such  cogent  arguments  in  its  favor,  and  with 
such  warmth  of  personal  friendship  in  aid  of  your  kind 
offer. 

I  know  that  an  early  answer  is  desirable,  and  I  have 
waited  long  enough  to  consider  the  subject  in  all  its  bear 
ings,  and  to  make  up  my  mind  definitely  and  conclusively. 
I  now  say  to  you,  in  the  same  cordial  spirit  in  which  you 
have  invited  me,  that  I  accept  the  position. 

It  is  no  affectation  for  me  to  add  that  I  make  this  de 
cision,  not  for  the  honor  of  the  promotion  it  gives  me  in  the 
public  service,  but  because  I  think  I  can  be  useful  to  the 
country  and  to  the  party;  useful  to  you  as  the  responsible 
leader  of  the  party  and  the  great  head  of  the  government. 

I  am  influenced  somewhat,  perhaps,  by  the  shower  of 
letters  I  have  received  urging  me  to  accept,  written  to  me 
in  consequence  of  the  mere  unauthorized  newspaper  report 
that  you  had  been  pleased  to  offer  me  the  place.  While  I 
have  received  these  letters  from  all  sections  of  the  Union,  I 
have  been  especially  pleased  and  even  surprised  at  the  cor 
dial  and  widely  extending  feeling  in  my  favor  throughout 
New  England,  where  I  had  expected  to  encounter  local  jeal 
ousy  and  perhaps  rival  aspiration. 

In  our  new  relation  I  shall  give  all  that  I  am  and  all  that 
I  can  hope  to  be  freely,  and  joyfully,  to  your  service.  You 
need  no  pledge  of  my  loyalty  in  heart  and  in  act.  I  should 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  115 

be  false  to  myself  did  I  not  prove  true  both  to  the  great 
trust  you  confide  to  me  and  to  your  own  personal  and  politi 
cal  fortunes  in  the  present  and  in  the  future.  Your  admin 
istration  must  be  made  brilliantly  successful  and  strong  in 
the  confidence  and  pride  of  the  people,  not  at  all  directing 
its  energies  for  re-election,  and  yet  compelling  that  result 
by  the  logic  of  events  and  by  the  imperious  necessities  of 
the  situation. 

To  that  most  desirous  consummation  I  feel  .that,  next  to 
yourself,  I  can  possibly  contribute  as  much  influence  as  any 
other  man.  I  say  this  not  from  egotism  or  vainglory,  but 
merely  as  a  deduction  from  a  plain  analysis  of  the  political 
forces  which  have  been  at  work  in  the  country  for  five 
years  past,  and  which  have  been  significantly  shown  in  two 
great  National  Conventions.  I  accept  it  as  one  of  the  hap 
piest  circumstances  connected  with  this  affair,  that  in  allying 
my  political  fortunes  with  yours — or  rather  for  the  time 
merging  mine  in  yours — my  heart  goes  with  my  head,  and 
I  carry  to  you  not  only  political  support  but  personal 
and  devoted  friendship.  I  can  but  regard  it  as  somewhat 
remarkable  that  two  men  of  the  same  age,  entering  Con 
gress  at  the  same  time,  influenced  by  the  same  aims  and 
cherishing  the  same  ambitions,  should  never,  for  a  single 
moment,  in  eighteen  years  of  close  intimacy,  have  had  a 
misunderstanding  or  a  coolness,  and  that  our  friendship  has 
steadily  grown  with  our  growth  and  strengthened  with  our 
strength. 

It  is  this  fact  which  has  led  me  to  the  conclusion  em 
bodied  in  this  letter;  for  however  much,  my  dear  Garfield, 
I  might  admire  you  as  a  statesman,  I  would  not  enter  your 
Cabinet  if  I  did  not  believe  in  you  as  a  man  and  love  you 
as  a  friend.  Always  faithfully  yours, 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 


IK)  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XV. 

As  a  diplomate,  though  with  less  than  one  year  in  which 
to  exhibit  his  rare  talents,  owing  to  the  assassination  of  his 
chief,  Mr.  Elaine  has  few  if  any  superiors.  This  short  term 
of  service,  in-  the  position  of  Secretary  of  State,  proved 
quite  sufficient  to  show  with  what  precision  and  ability  he 
could  cope  with  questions  of  international  polity.  Directly 
after  his  induction  into  that  office  he  outlined  a  foreign  policy 
which  had  for  its  object,  primarily,  the  convocation  of  a  Peace 
Congress,  succeeding  in  which  he  hoped  to  secure  such  action 
as  would  prevent  future  wars  in  North  and  South  America, 
and  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  those  countries  which,  by 
right,  ought  to  be  large  consumers  of  our  products. 

As  an  expounder  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  Mr.  Blaine  was 
consistent  without  conservatism,  firm  without  a  semblance  of 
autocracy.  He  was  at  all  times  an  American,  and  justly  forbade 
any  intervention,  by  either  action  or  suggestion,  of  foreign 
powers.  In  his  inaugural  address  President  Garfield  declared 
that  it  was  "  the  right  and  duty  of  the  United  States  to  as 
sert  and  maintain  such  supervision  and  authority  over  any 
interoceanic  canal  across  the  isthmus  that  connects  North 
and  South  America  as  will  protect  our  national  interests." 
This  policy  had  already  received  the  approval  of  Congress, 
and  as  Secretary,  Mr.  Blaine  made  it  plainly  understood  that 
he  would  vigorously  uphold  it.  Only  a  short  time  previous 
to  President  Garfield's  enunciation  of  this  doctrine,  the 
United  States  of  Columbia  had  submitted  a  proposal  to  all 
European  Powers  to  join  in  guaranteeing  the  neutrality  of 


WESTERN  MILITARY  ACADEMY,  BLUE  LICK  SPRINGS,   KY. 


JAMES   G.    BLAINE. 

the  Panama  Canal.  This  action  led  Secretary  Elaine  to  ad 
vise  the  President  to  notify  those  powers  that  the  United 
States  had  secured  exclusive  rights  in  the  canal  from  the 
country  through  which  it  was  intended  to  be  cut,  and  nego 
tiations  for  any  guarantees  appertaining  to  its  construction 
would  have  to  be  made  with  this  country. 

As  the  United  States  had  made,  in  the  Clay  ton-Bui  wer 
Treaty  of  1850,  a  special  agreement  with  Great  Britain  on 
this  subject,  Secretary  Blaine  supplemented  his  memoran 
dum  to  the  powers  by  a  formal  proposal  for  the  abrogation 
of  all  provisions  of  that  convention,  which  were  not  in  ac 
cord  with  the  guarantees  and  privileges  covenanted  for  in 
the  compact  with  the  Colombian  Republic.  In  this  State 
paper,  the  most  elaborate  of  the  series  receiving  his  signa 
ture  as  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Blaine  contended  that  the 
operation  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  practically  conceded 
to  Great  Britain  the  control  of  any  canal  which  might  be 
constructed  in  the  isthmus,  as  that  power  was  required  by 
its  insular  position  and  colonial  possessions  to  maintain  a 
naval  establishment  with  which  the  United  States  could  not 
I  compete.  As  the  American  Government  had  bound  itself 
|  by  its  engagements  in  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  not  to 
fight  in  the  isthmus,  nor  to  fortify  the  mouths  of  any  water 
way  that  might  be  constructed,  the  Secretary  argued  that  if 
any  struggle  for  the  control  of  the  canal  were  to  arise, 
England  would  have  an  advantage  at  the  outset  which  would 
prove  decisive.  "  The  Treaty, "  he  remarked,  "  commands 
this  government  not  to  use  a  single  regiment  of  troops  to 
protect  its  interests  in  connection  with  the  interoceanic  ca 
nal,  but  to  surrender  the  transit  to  the  guardianship  and 
control  of  the  British  navy.  "  The  logic  of  this  paper  was 
unanswerable  from  an  American  point  of  view.  If  the 


120  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

i 

Monroe  Doctrine  be  anything  more  than  a  tradition,  the 
control  of  the  Panama  Canal  must  not  be  allowed  to  pass 
out  of  American  hands;  and  since  the  country  having  the 
most  powerful  navy  is  the  real  guardian  of  the  freedom  of 
an  interoceanic  canal  under  any  system  of  international 
guarantees,  or  in  the  absence  of  treaty  law,  the  Panama 
Canal,  as  Mr.  Elaine  said,  under  the  Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty, 
would  be  surrendered,  if  not  in  form,  yet  in  effect,  to  the 
control  of  Great  Britain. 

Mr.  Elaine's  South  American  policy  for  establishing 
peace  in  the  distracted  governments  of  Chili  and  Peru  was 
masterly,  and  deserved  experiment.  Even  the  conclusion 
of  war  between  the  two  did  not  bring  peace,  and  arbitrament 
was  still  necessary. 

The  war  between  Chili  and  Peru  had  virtually  ended  with 
the  capture  of  Lima  on  January  17,  1881.  Pierola,  the  Presi 
dent,  had  succeeded  in  rallying  a  few  followers  in  the  north, 
and  Calderon,  assuming  the  provisional  Presidency,  had  con 
voked  a  Congress  in  the  vicinity  of  Lima.  The  State  De 
partment  made  strenuous  exertions  to  bring  about  the  conclu 
sion  of  an  early  peace  between  Chili  and  the  two  prostrate 
States  which  had  been  crushed  in  war.  The  influence  of 
the  government  was  brought  to  bear  upon  victorious  Chili 
in  the  interest  of  peace  and  magnanimity  ;  but  owing  to  an 
unfortunate  misapprehension  of  Mr.  Elaine's  instructions, 
the  United  States  Ministers  did  not  promote  the  ends  of 
peace.  Special  envoys  were  accordingly  sent  to  South 
America,  accredited  to  the  three  governments,  with  general 
instructions  which  should  enable  them  to  bring  those  bellig 
erent  powers  into  friendly  relations.  These  envoys  were 
Mr.  Trescot  and  Mr.  Walker  Elaine,  and  their  mission  was 
to  perform  a  most  delicate  and  important  diplomatic  duty  in 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  121 

the  interest  of  peace.  After  they  had  set  out  from  New 
York,  Mr.  Elaine  resigned,  and  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  reversed 
the  diplomatic  policy  with  such  precipitate  haste  that  the 
envoys,  on  arriving  at  their  destination,  were  informed  by  the 
Chilian  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  that  their  instructions  had 
been  countermanded  and  that  their  mission  was  an  idle  farce. 
By  this  extraordinary  reversal  of  diplomatic  methods  and 
purposes  the  influence  of  the  United  States  Government  on 
the  South  American  coast  was  reduced  to  so  low  a  point  as 
to  become  insignificant.  Mr.  Elaine's  policy  had  been  at 
once  strong  and  pacific.  It  was  followed  by  a  period  of  no- 
policy  which  enabled  Chili  to  make  a  conqueror's  terms  with 
the  conquered  and  to  seize  as  much  territory  as  pleased  its 

i  rapacious  generals. 

The  most  conspicuous  act  of  Mr.  Elaine's  administration 

i  of  the  State  Department  was  his  invitation  to  the  Peace  Con 
gress.  This  plan  had  been  decided  upon  before  the  assassi 
nation  of  President  Garfield.  The  proposition  was  to  invite 
all  the  independent  governments  of  North  and  South  Amer- 
ca  to  meet  in  a  Peace  Congress  at  Washington,  on  March  15, 
1882.  The  representatives  of  all  the  minor  governments 
on  this  continent  were  to  agree,  if  possible,  upon  some  com 
prehensive  plan  for  averting  war  by  means  of  arbitration, 
and  for  resisting  the  intrigues  of  European  diplomacy.  In 
vitations  were  sent  on  November  22,  with  the  limitations  and 
restrictions  originally  designed.  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  lost  no 
Lime  in  undermining  this  diplomatic  Congress,  and  the  meet- 
ng  never  took  place.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  pro 
posed  Congress  would  have  had  a  most  important  effect  not 
ly  in  promoting  the  ends  of  peace,  but  in  stimulating 
American  trade  with  the  Spanish- American  States.  It  was 
i  brilliant  conception — a  most  useful  project. 


122  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Mr.  Blaine  has  described  the  Congress  as  "an  important 
and  impressive  step  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  toward 
closer  relationship  with  our  continental  neighbors.  In  no 
event  could  harm  have  resulted  in  the  assembly  of  the  Peace 
Congress.  Failure  was  next  to  impossible.  Success  might 
be  regarded  as  certain.  The  subject  to  be  discussed  waa 
peace,  and  how  it  can  be  permanently  preserved  in  North 
and  South  America.  The  labors  of  the  Congress  would  have 
probably  ended  in  a  well-digested  system  of  arbitration,  un 
der  which  all  troubles  between  American  States  could  be 
quickly,  effectually  and  satisfactorily  adjusted.  Such  a  con 
summation  would  have  been  worth  a  great  struggle  and  a 
great  sacrifice.  It  could  have  been  reached  without  any 
struggle  and  would  have  involved  no  sacrifice.  It  was  within 
our  grasp.  It  was  ours  for  the  asking.  It  would  have 
been  a  signal  victory  of  philanthrophy  over  the  selfishness  of 
human  ambition ;  a  complete  triumph  of  Christian  princi 
ples  as  applied  to  the  affairs  of  nations.  It  would  have  re 
flected  enduring  honor  on  our  new  country,  and  would  have 
imparted  a  new  spirit  and  a  new  brotherhood  to  all  America. 
Nor  would  its  influence  beyond  the  sea  have  been  small.  The 
example  of  seventeen  independent  nations  solemnly  agree 
ing  to  abolish  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword,  and  to  settle 
every  dispute  by  peaceful  methods  of  adjudication,  would 
have  exerted  an  influence  to  the  utmost  confines  of  civiliza 
tion,  and  upon  the  generations  of  men  yet  to  come. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  123 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Mr.  Garfield's  administration,  short  as  it  was,  did  not  es 
cape  the  turbulent  animosities  of  implacable  politicians. 
The  defeat  of  Grant,  in  his  ambition  for  a  third  term,  was 
accepted  with  extreme  reluctance  by  that  wing  of  the  Re 
publican  party  which  called  themselves  "  Stalwarts."  In 
fact  they  smarted  and  bred  a  rancor  that  could  not  long  re 
main  surpressed.  Mr.  Conkling  was  the  leader  of  the 
Stalwarts,  a  leader  that  shouted  "to  the  front"  with  gusto, 
and  who  hung  on  to  his  purposes  with  remarkable  tenacity. 
He  believed  firmly  in  his  ability  to  nominate  Grant,  and  had 
there  not  been  such  hostility  to  the  third  term  idea,  no  one 
doubts  but  that  he  would  have  accomplished  that  object. 
Mr.  Conkling  had,  and  has,  in  him  all  the  elements  of  a  great 
man ;  he  is  a  master  of  passionate  eloquence  and  is  the  soul 
of  energy ;  besides  he  is  a  man  of  much  personal  magnetism 
and  was  evidently  born  for  leadership.  The  one  fault  of  Mr. 
Conkling' s  is  that  he  exceeds  the  bounds  of  persistency  by 
refusing  to  accept  defeat,  or  the  logic  of  accomplished  result, 
when  that  result  opposes  his  aspirations. 

When  Grant's  phalanx  of  306  was  charged  and  over 
ridden  at  Chicago  the  stricken  few  rose,  red  in  the  face  and 
demanded  a  sacrifice.  When  Garfield  entered  upon  his 
discharge  of  the  executive  duties,  Mr.  Conkling  sought  oc 
casion  for  disturbing  the  promise  of  his  administration. 
This  feeling  was  directed  not  $o  much  against  President 
Garfield  as  it  was  against  Mr.  Elaine,  whose  rebuke  of  Mr. 


124  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

Conkling  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  had  not  been  for 
gotten  and  whose  offense  had  been  aggravated  by  his  actioi 
in  defeating  the  nomination  of  Grant. 

Opportunity  for  giving  vent  to  Mr.  Conkling's  wrath  wa; 
not  long  wanting.  Judge  Robertson  had  been  warmly  rec 
ommended  for  appointment  as  collector  of  the  port  of  Nev 
York;  his  record  was  without  a  blemish,  his  ability  was  un 
questioned  and  he  was  popular  throughout  the  State 
Why  should  he  not  receive  the  appointment?  No  reason  ap 
pearing,  President  Garfield  issued  a  commission  to  Judg( 
Robertson,  and  then  followed  a  long  fight  in  the  Senate  ovei 
his  confirmation.  The  "Stalwarts"  claimed  that  such  ar 
appointment,  without  first  receiving  the  approval  of  Mi 
Conkling,  was  an  insult  to  the  New  York  Senators,  foi 
which  Mr.  Elaine  was  responsible.  But  why  should  Mr 
Blaine  be  held  accountable?  Because  he  had  opposed  Gen 
Grant  in  the  convention,  and  his  antagonism  to  the  "  Stal 
warts"  was  therefore  taken  for  granted.  Whether  this  was 
a  mere  pretext  for  Mr.  Conkling  making  war  against  Judg< 
Robertson  I  will  let  the  impartial  reader  decide.  But  that  the 
action  thus  taken  as  preliminary  to  the  organization  of  j 
faction  that  should  oppose  the  Administration  was  inconsist 
ent,  to  say  the  least,  goes  without  argument. 

In  the  fight  which  was  carried  on  in  the  Senate,  Mr 
Blaine,  very  properly,  dutifully  in  fact,  took  sides  with  Mr 
Garfield,  while  strange  as  it  appears,  remarkable  indeed 
Vice-President  Arthur  espoused  the  cause  of  the  "  Stal 
warts,"  an  action  unprecedented  in  American  history.  Th( 
confirmation  of  Judge  Robertson  was  delayed  for  severa 
weeks,  while  the  bitterness  of  the  two  factions  continual!} 
increased  and  extended  until  it  drew  into  action  the  entin 
Republican  party,  which  had  now  divided  into  "Stalwarts' 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  125 

and,  as  that  faction  derisively  called  their  opponents, 
"Half-breeds."  But  the  latter  triumphed  and  Judge 
Robertson  entered  upon  his  duty  as  collector. 

Unable  to  accept  defeat,  Mr.  Conkling  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  followed  by  Senator  Platt, 
hoping  and  believing  that  their  action  would  be  commended, 
and  that  their  course  in  opposing  the  Admistration  would 
be  ratified  by  their  re-election  to  the  Senate,  as  Senators 
were  to  be  elected  at  the  next  session  of  the  New  York 
Legislature.  But  the  implacable  foes  of  Blaine  were  neither 
commended  by  resolution  nor  vindicated  by  re-election,  for 
both  Senators  Conkling  and  Platt  were  defeated  in  their  as 
pirations. 

In  this  political  fight  Mr.  Blaine  bore  himself  with  dig 
nity  and  prudence,  never  appearing  intrusive,  but  performed 
only  his  duty.  He  did  not  exult,  either,  in  his  triumph,  but 
stood  ready  to  act  for  the  best  interests  of  the  party.  These 
dictated  that  some  line  of  action  should  be  adopted  looking 
towards  conciliation,  and  to  this  end  Mr.  Blaine  made  it 
plainly  understood  that  he  bore  no  animosities  towards  any 
Republican,  and  stood  ready  to  grasp  any  hand  that  might 
be  offered  across  the  gulf  of  past  political  differences. 

But  this  spirit  of  peace  was  not  encouraged  by  the  "  Stal 
warts,"  who  not  only  refused  to  treat  for  peace  but  contin 
ued  to  foment  discord,  until  they  aroused  a  hatred  that  cul 
minated  in  the  assassination  of  President  Garfield.  In  jus 
tice,  however,  let  it  be  said  for  the  honor  of  American  citi 
zenship,  that  no  party  or  people  more  earnestly  deplored 
the  result  or  were  more  horrified  by  the  crime  than  the 
"  Stalwarts."  Mr.  Conkling,  and  his  adherents,  no  doubt  be 
lieved  that  he  was  justified  in  demanding  the  right  of  con 
sultation,  at  least,  in  the  distribution  of  government 


LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

patronage  in  New  York.  President  Garfield  and  Mr.  Elaine 
conceded  this  right  but  maintained  that  the  position  of  col 
lector  of  a  port  of  such  national  importance  as  New  York, 
concerning,  in  its  direct  transactions,  all  the  States,  was  in 
no  sense  a  State  appointment,  and  therefore  not  within  the 
purview  of  that  authority  which  Mr.  Conkling  relied  upon. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  127 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

We  have  now  followed  Mr.  Elaine  in  his  career  as  a  boy, 
teacher,  editor,  statesman  and  diplomate ;  let  us  now  search 
his  heart  for  the  man  of  sympathies  and  gentle  feelings. 
The  attachment  existing  for  twenty  years  or  more  between 
Elaine  and  Garfield  must  have  been  uncommonly  strong, 
indeed  almost  sacred.  When  one  became  President  and  the 
other  Secretary  of  State,  a  common  responsibility  of  vast 
personal  and  political  importance  drew  them  still  nearer  to 
gether  ;  there  were  mutual  confidences  as  well  as  mutual  friend 
ships;  they  measured  each  other's  aims  and  capacities  for 
grave  duties ,  and  there  was  no  doubting  between  them .  When , 
on  the  2d  day  of  July,  1881,  President  Garfield,  with  happy 
heart  and  joyous  anticipation,  accompanied  by  his  old  friend 
and  tried  counsellor,  set  out  for  the  Bait.  &  Pot.  R.  R. 
Depot,  in  Washington  City,  there  were  merry  jokes  flying 
between  them,  and  the  sensuous  air  stirred  again  under  the 
delightful  humor  which  emanated  from  each.  President 
Garfield  was  starting  for  New  England,  upon  an  invitation 
to  renew  the  happy  associations  which  once  clustered  around 
his  Alma  Mater,  Williams  College ;  his  old  classmates  were 
there  waiting  for  him,  anxious  to  take  his  hand  again  and 
talk  over  their  school  boy  days  rather  than  to  hail  him  as 
the  chief  of  our  proud  and  no  less  mighty  country.  Re 
joicing  in  these  memories  and  anticipations,  our  President 
had  invited  his  best  friend  to  bear  him  company  to  the  de 
pot.  In  such  delightsome  spirit  the  two  companions  arrived 


128  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

soon  at  the  depot  and  made  hasty  preparations  for  depar 
ture;  the  train  stood  ready,  with  noisy  blasts  of  escaping 
energy,  as  if  impatient  at  restraint,  and  grumbling  at  delay. 
The  two  friends  now  make  their  way  towards  the  platform, 
both  in  high  glee,  one  friend  rejoicing  at  the  other's  holiday. 
Suddenly  a  pistol  shot  pierces  the  noisy  bustle,  followed 
sharply  by  another,  and  as  Mr.  Elaine  turns,  his  shocked 
sight  beholds  the  stricken  form  of  President  Garfield,  shot 
from  behind  by  a  crazed  villain  whose  crime  could  never  be 
fully  expiated,  though  with  life  renewed  he  were  hung  a 
thousand  times. 

Then  followed  those  long  months  of  patient  suffering,  the 
continual  upholding  of  hope,  the  one  fighting  chance  against  a 
hundred.  Patience  herself  never  taught  a  more  perfect 
lesson  of  resignation  than  did  our  martyr  President,  through 
all  that  dreadful  season  of  heat  and  ever  ebbing  vitality. 
Who  will  forget  the  daily  bulletins  which  indicated  the  rising 
and  falling  pulse,  and  who  can  forget  how  James  G.  Blaine 
ministered  to  his  best  friend,  sat  by  the  couch  and  suffered 
with  poignant  sympathy  as  he  saw  how  closely  the  waiting 
angel  of  death  hovered  around  it,  with  rustling  wings 
and  extended  arms  asking  "  shall  I  claim  him. "  It 
was  during  these  tender  watches  one  day,  that  the 
suffering  victim  of  that  cursed  assassin,  in  the  cottage  at 
Elberon,  when  his  life  had  nearly  wasted,  summoned  up 
all  his  strength  and  placing  his  arms  about  Mr.  Elaine's 
neck,  wept  as  he  spoke,  "How  I  love  you."  It  was 
too  much  for  the  man  who  could  move  listening  senates  to 
command,  whose  heart  throbbed  with  courage  in  the  hour 
of  bristling  danger;  too  much  for  a  hero,  too  grievous  for  a 
friend ;  that  great  orator,  that  defender  of  America's  sacred 
honor,  and  lover  of  his  friend,  bowed  down  under  a  burden 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  129 

of  sorrow  which  all  the  consolements  of  blissful  emergence 
through  the  furnace  of  suffering  could  not  ease.  Seeing  with 
what  oppression  his  assurance  of  continued  love  had  borne 
down  upon  his  old  friend's  heart,  the  dying  President,  in 
cheerful,  chiding  tone,  remarked:  "  My  dear  fellow,  it  is  not 
time  for  that  yet." 

Unable  to  repress  the  feelings  which  were  struggling  for 
mastery,  as  he  looked  upon  the  fading  th  )ugh  hopeful  life 
of  brave  Garfield,  Mr.  Elaine  made  excuse  for  immediately 
leaving  the  bedside,  and  retiring  to  his  own  room  gave  vent 
to  the  tears  which  he  could  no  longer  restrain.  Thus  day 
after  day  went  by,  sometimes  with  hope  blossoming  in  the 
morning,  blooming  at  noon  and  then  withering  again  at  even 
tide.  A  nation  stood  waiting  for  those  hourly  bulletins  in 
dicating  the  Presidents'  condition,  and  Mr.  Elaine  stood  at 
the  couch  to  catch  every  pulse  beat,  to  watch  the  heaving 
breast,  the  changing  eye,  and  give  them  at  regular  intermis 
sions  to  the  world.  He  was  nurse  to  his  friend,  and  yet 
called  to  a  practical  administration  of  the  executive  duties. 

At  last,  on  the  13th  of  September,  the  weak,  exhausted 
Garfield  closed  his  eyes  and  rested  forever,  the  pulse,  so 
feeble  before,  died  so  gradually  that  it  scarce  gave  index  to 
the  approach  of  death,  and  the  pallid  face  had  long  before 
borne  the  ashen  impress  of  the  destroying  angel.  When  the 
news  flashed  to  every  compass  that  our  President  had  fallen 
into  eternal  sleep,  the  very  world  seemed  to  bow  its  head  in 
grief.  Mr.  Elaine  mingled  with  the  sorrow  of  a  nation's  loss 
the  grief  of  a  loving  friend. 


130  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

When  the  funeral  rites  were  completed ;  when  the  body 
of  our  martyr  President  had  been  laid  away  on  the  green 
hillside  overlooking  the  beautiful  lake  Erie,  and  the  solemn 
thousands  who  paid  their  tribute  of  respect  at  his  tomb  re 
turned  to  their  homes,  it  was  the  pleasure  of  Congress  to  re 
quest  that  a  worthy  eulogy  be  delivered  on  the  character  of 
JamesA.Garfield  in  the  halls  where  his  long  and  distinguished 
services  had  made  him  so  conspicuous  ;  an  eulogy  in  which 
might  be  enshrined  for  history  the  glorious  deeds  and  exam 
ples  of  his  life,  commemorative  of  his  exaltation  from  the 
humblest  position  in  life  to  that  proud  eminence  for  which 
Nature's  God  seemed  to  specially  qualify  him. 

Who  so  well  fitted  to  discharge  the  duty,  on  behalf  of  the 
nation,  as  James  G.  Elaine?  The  people  of  every  State  said 
"that  is  the  man,"  the  counselor,  colleague  and  intimate 
friend ;  the  man  who  had  sounded  all  the  depths  of  Garfield's 
life,  hopes  and  ambitions;  who  applauded  his  success  and 
sorrowed  at  his  bedside.  For  these  reasons  Mr.  Elaine  was 
chosen,  and  when  the  day  arrived  for  the  delivery  of  that 
eulogy,  Washington  City  was  fairly  filled  with  persons  who 
had  come  from  all  parts  of  the  Nation  to  hear  what  they  had 
every  reason  for  believing  would  be  a  great  oration. 

The  Lower  House  of  Congress,  in  which  the  eulogy  was 
spoken,  was  appropriately  draped,  and  when  Mr.  Elaine  ap 
peared  at  the  Speaker's  desk  there  was  neither  a  vacant  seat 
or  standing  room,  so  dense  was  the  audience,  while  thous 
ands  stood  in  the  halls  unable  to  gain  admission.  Those  who 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  131 

were  so  fortunate  as  to  be  within  hearing  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
voice  on  that  occasion  can  never  forget  the  effect  which  his 
most  eloquent  effort  produced.  The  eulogy  was  quite 
lengthy,  occupying  six  columns  of  space  in  the  large  metro 
politan  papers,  though  at  no  time  was  the  speaker  tiresome, 
but  on  the  contrary  he  fairly  electrified  that  vast  concourse 
of  people  and  acquitted  himself  with  the  most  distinguished 
honor,  worthy  of  his  fame  and  subject.  The  conclusion 
of  Mr.  Elaine's  eulogy  will  take  permanent  place  among  the 
brilliant  passages  of  the  world's  greatest  orators.  It  is  as 
follows : 

4 'On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  2d,  the  President 
was  a  contented  and  happy  man — not  in  an  ordinary  de 
gree,  but  joyful,  almost  boyishly  happy.  On  his  way  to 
the  railroad  station,  to  which  he  drove  slowly,  in  conscious 
enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  morning,  with  an  unwonted  sense 
of  pleasure,  his  talk  was  all  in  the  grateful  and  gratulatory 
vein.  He  felt  that,  after  four  months  of  trial,  his  adminis 
tration  was  strong  in  its  grasp  of  affairs,  strong  in  popular 
favor,  and  destined  to  grow  stronger ;  that  grave  difficulties 
confronting  him  at  his  inaguration  had  been  safely  passed ; 
that  trouble  lay  behind  him  and  not  before  him ;  that  he 
was  soon  to  meet  the  wife  whom  he  loved,  now  recovering 
from  an  illness  which  had  but  lately  disquieted  and  at  times 
almost  unnerved  him;  that  he  was  going  to  his  Alma  Mater 
to  renew  the  most  cherished  associations  of  his  young  man 
hood,  and  to  exchange  greetings  with  those  whose  deepen 
ing  interest  had  followed  every  step  of  his  upward  progress 
from  the  day  he  entered  upon  his  college  course  until  he  had 
attained  the  loftiest  elevation  in  the  gift  of  his  countrymen. 

"  Surely  if  happiness  can  ever  come  from  the  honors  or 
triumphs  of  this  world,  on  that  quiet  July  morning  James 
A.  Garfield  may  well  have  been  a  happy  man.  No  fore 
boding  of  evil  haunted  him;  no  slightest  premonition  of 
danger  clouded  his  sky.  His  terrible  fate  was  upon  him  in 
an  instant.  One  moment  he  stood  erect,  strong,  confident 


132  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

in  the  years  stretching  peacefully  out  before  him.  The  next 
he  lay  wounded,  bleeding,  helpless,  doomed  to  weary  weeks 
of  torture,  to  silence,  and  the  grave. 

"  Great  in  life,  he  was  surpassingly  great  in  death.  For 
no  cause,  in  the  very  frenzy  of  wantonness  and  wickedness, 
by  the  red  hand  of  murder,  he  was  thrust  from  the  full  tide 
of  the  world's  interest,  from  its  hopes,  its  aspirations,  its 
victories,  into  the  visible  presence  of  death — and  he  did  not 
quail.  Not  alone  for  the  one  short  moment  in  which, 
stunned  and  dazed,  he  could  give  up  life,  hardly  aware  of 
its  relinquishment,  but  through  days  of  deadly  languor, 
through  weeks  of  agony,  that  was  not  less  agony  because 
silently  borne,  with  clear  sight  and  calm  courage,  he  looked 
into  his  open  grave.  What  blight  and  ruin  met  his  anguished 
eyes,  whose  lips  may  tell — what  brilliant,  broken  plans, 
what  baffled,  high  ambitions,  what  sundering  of  strong, 
warm,  manhood's  friendships,  what  bitter  rending  of  sweet 
household  ties !  Behind  him  a  proud,  expectant  nation,  a 
great  host  of  sustaining  friends,  a  cherished  and  happy 
mother,  wearing  the  full,  rich  honors  of  her  early  toil  and  tears, 
the  wife  of  his  youth,  whose  whole  life  lay  in  his,  the  little 
boys  not  yet  emerged  from  childhood's  day  of  frolic,  the 
fair  young  daughter,  the  sturdy  sons  just  springing  into 
closest  companionship,  claiming  every  day  and  every  day 
rewarding  a  father's  love  and  care,  and  in  his  heart  the  eager, 
rejoicing  power  to  meet  all  demand.  Before  him,  desola 
tion  and  great  darkness !  And  his  soul  was  not  shaken. 
His  countrymen  were  thrilled  with  instant,  profound  and 
universal  sympathy.  Masterful  in  his  mortal  weakness,  he 
became  the  center  of  a  nation's  love,  enshrined  in  the  pray 
ers  of  a  world.  But  all  the  love  and  all  the  sympathy  could 
not  share  with  him  his  suffering.  He  trod  the  wine  press 
alone.  With  unfailing  tenderness  he  took  leave  of  life. 
Above  the  demoniac  hiss  of  the  assassin's  bullet  he  heard  the 
voice  of  God.  With  simple  resignation  he  bowed  to  the 
Divine  decree. 

"As  the  end  drew  near,  his  early  craving  for  the  sea  re 
turned.  The  stately  mansion  of  power  had  been  to  him  the 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  133 

wearisome  hospital  of  pain,  and  he  begged  to  be  taken  from 
its  prison  walls,  from  its  oppressive,  stifling  air,  from  its 
homelessness  and  hopelessness.  Gently,  silently,  the  love 
of  a  great  people  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed-for 
healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  die  as  God  should  will,  within 
sight  of  its  heaving  billows,  within  the  sound  of  its  mani 
fold  voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face  tenderly  lifted  to  the 
cooling  breeze,  he  looked  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  chang 
ing  wonders;  on  its  far  sails,  whitening  in  the  morning  light; 
on  its  restless  waves,  rolling  shoreward  to  break  and  die  be 
neath  the  noonday  sun ;  on  the  red  clouds  of  evening,  arch 
ing  low  to  the  horizon ;  on  the  serene  and  shining  pathway 
of  the  stars.  Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read  a  mys 
tic  meaning  which  only  the  rapt  and  parting  soul  may  know. 
Let  us  believe  that  in  the  silence  of  the  receding  world  he 
heard  the  great  wave  breaking  on  a  further  shore,  and  felt 
already  upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the  eternal 
morning. " 


134  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    CONVENTION. 

There  h;ive  been  Presidential  Conventions  held  in  this 
country  more  exciting,  by  reason  of  more  bitter  animosities, 
than  the  Republican  assembling  of  1«S84;  but  viewed  with 
regard  to  the  general  interest  in  times  of  peace,  the  conven 
tion  which  discharged  its  duties  with  the  nominations  of 
BLAINE  and  LOGAN  must  ever  remain  memorable. 
Tn  this  connection,  a  reference  to  the  origin  of,  and  the  chief 
interest  in,  the  several  conventions  under  our  political  system 
of  government,  will  be  read  with  much  interest. 

Presidential  nominations  were  formerly  made  in  Con 
gressional  and  Legislative  caucuses,  somewhat  as  elections 
to  the  Senate  are  now  made,  but  in  1831  our  present  system 
was  adopted,  having  its  creation  in  a  factional  fight  between 
Masons  and  the  active  opponents  of  that  secret  organization. 
In  order  to  accomplish  their  purposes  more  effectually,  the 
latter  had  recourse  to  the  people  at  large,  and,  therefore, 
issued  a  call  from  Philadelphia  for  a  National  Convention 
to  meet  in  Baltimore,  in  1831,  at  which  assembling  William 
Wirt,  of  Maryland,  was  nominated  for  President,  and  Amos 
Ellwaker  received  the  second  honor.  Prior  to  this — the 

stimulating  cause  of  the  convention — nearlv  all  chief  Icsnsla- 

•• 

tive  officers,  from  the  election  of  Washington,  had  been 
Masons,  and,  therefore,  the  impress  of  that  lodge,  through 
brotherhood  obligations,  was  conspicuous  in  nearly  all  the 
governmental  appointments.  The  National  Republicans, 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  137 

however,  quickly  perceiving  the  popularity  of  such  a  move 
ment  with  the  masses,  also  called  a  convention,  and  put 
forward  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  and  John  Sergeant^  of 
Pennsylvania.  That  no  advantage  might  be  lost,  the  Demo 
crats  adopted  the  same  tactics,  and  nominated  Andrew 
Jackson  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  at  Baltimore. 

In  1835  the  Democrats  held  their  convention  again  in  the 
same  city,  and  adopted  what  has  since  been  known  as  the 
"  two-thirds  "  or  "  unit"  rule,  by  which  each  delegate  was 
compelled  to  vote  according  to  the  wishes  of  two-thirds  of 
his  delegation.  It  was  the  operation  of  this  rule  that  gave 
Van  Buren  the  unanimous  nomination  in  this  convention, 
while  Richard  M.  Johnson  was  chosen  Vice-President.  The 
Whig  party  was  at  this  time  in  a  formative  state,  but  was 
too  weak  in  organization  to  make  any  considerable  struggle ; 
it,  therefore,  held  no  National  Convention,  but  a  few  en 
thusiasts,  nevertheless,  assembled  at  Harrisburg  and  put 
forward  Gen.  W.  H.  Harrison  and  Francis  Granger.  This 
Whig  ticket  became  a  strong  opposition,  however,  by  reason 
of  its  endorsement  by  the  Democratic  Anti-Masons  in  National 
Convention,  and  by  several  State  Conventions,  and  a  most 
exciting  and  doubtful  campaign  followed,  resulting,  how 
ever,  in  the  election  of  Van  Buren. 

In  December,  1839,  the  Whigs  again  nominated  Harrison, 
with  John  Tyler  for  Vice-President,  and  in  the  year  follow 
ing  the  Democrats  put  forward  Van  Buren  again,  with  R. 
M.  Johnson.  The  campaign  of  1840  was  one  ever  to  be 
remembered,  not  for  bitter  animosities,  fortunately,  but  for 
wonderful  political  interest  centering  in  deep,  personal 
attachments.  Mr.  Van  Buren' s  administration  had  been 
unfortunate,  not  because  of  any  mistakes  of  his  own,  but 


LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

because  the  four  years  chanced  to  be  replete  with  momen 
tous  disturbances.  In  1837  great  financial  distress  seized 
the  country,  and  in  New  York  city  alone,  during  the  months 
of  March  and  April,  there  were  failures  amounting  to  over 
$200,000,000.  So  serious  did  the  panic  become  that  an  extra 
session  of  Congress  was  called  in  September  to  devise  relief. 
In  addition  to  the  panic,  there  was  a  very  bitter  feeling 
manifesting  itself  between  the  slave-holders  and  abolition 
ists,  which  culminated  Nov.  7,  1837,  in  a  riot  at  Alton,  Illi 
nois,  in  which  many  persons  were  killed  and  the  entire 
nation  intensely  excited.  In  1839  another  financial  panic 
was  precipitated,  and  bankers  throughout  the  country,  to 
save  themselves,  were  compelled  to  suspend  payments. 

These  national  disturbances  very  materially  strengthened 
the  "Whigs,  particularly  with  Harrison  as  their  leader,  as  he 
was  then  carrying  prestige  of  great  honors  won  by  his 
victory  over  Tecuinseh,  on  the  Tippecanoe.  The  Demo 
cratic  Convention,  which  met  at  Baltimore  and  nominated 
Van  Buren,  drafted  the  first  elaborate  platform  that  any 
political  party  ever  put  before  the  people.  Campaign  songs 
also  came  into  vogue  this  year,  and  they  very  greatly 
assisted  to  arouse  enthusiasm  among  the  masses.  The  "Log 
Cabin"  and  "Hard  Cider"  campaign  of  1840  will  always 
remain  a  stirring  memory  to  those  who  participated  in  it, 
and  will  never  cease  to  interest  readers  of  political  history. 

It  may  also  be  added  that  in  this  year  the  Abolition  party 
first  effected  an  organization,  and  nominated  James  G. 
Birney,  of  New  York,  and  Francis  J.  Lemoyne  for  its 
standard  bearers. 

On  May  1st,  1844,  the  National  Whig  Convention  met  at 
Baltimore,  and  nominated,  by  acclamation,  Henry  Clay  for 
President,  and  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey, 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  139 

for  Vice-President.  On  the  27th  of  the  same  month,  in  the 
same  city,  the  Democrats  nominated  James  K.  Polk,  of 
Tennessee,  and  Silas  Wright,  of  New  York.  Mr.  Wright 
declined  the  honor,  and  Geo.  M.  Dallas,  of  Pennsylvania, 
was  put  in  his  stead. 

Until  1844,  all  the  conventions  had  been  held  one  year  or 
more  prior  to  the  election,  on  account  of  the  length  of  time 
required  to  reach  all  points  of  the  country,  there  being  no  tele 
graph,  and  practically  no  railroads,  to  facilitate  communi 
cation.  In  this  year,  however,  just  four  hundred  years  after 
Guettenberg  and  Faust  had  invented  the  printing  press  and 
types,  a  line  of  telegraph,  purely  experimental,  was  estab 
lished  between  Baltimore  and  Washington.  This  proving 
successful,  rapid  progress  was  made  towards  increasing 
communications,  and  the  time  between  conventions  and 
elections  became  shorter  and  shorter. 

The  next  National  Convention  of  the  Whigs  was  held  in 
Philadelphia,  1848,  at  which  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor,  of 
Louisiana,  crowned  with  laurel  leaves  gathered  on  the  bloody 
fields  of  Mexico,  was  nominated  for  President,  and  Millard 
Fillmore,  of  New  York,  was  selected  for  the  Vice-Presidency. 
The  Democrats,  whose  assembling  was  again  at  Baltimore, 
put  forward  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  and  William  O.  But 
ler,  of  Kentucky. 

There  was  a  split  in  the  Democratic  party,  one  faction  of 
which,  known  as  the  "Free  Soil,"  but  called  by  the 
"  Straight  Outs"  "  Barn  Burners,"  met  at  Buffalo  and  nomi 
nated  Martin  Van  Buren  and  Charles  Francis  Adams.  This 
faction  adopted  as  a  campaign  motto,  "Free  soil,  free  speech, 
free  labor  and  free  men." 

In  the  conventions  of  1852  there  was  great  excitement 
and  hard  fighting.  The  Whigs  met  in  Baltimore,  and  after 


140  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

balloting  fifty-three  times  selected  Gen.  Winfield  Scott  for 
President,  and  William  A.  Graham,  of  North  Carolina,  for 
Vice-President.  The  Democrats  held  their  convention  two 
weeks  previously,  in  the  same  city,  and  on  the  forty-ninth 
ballot  chose  Franklin  Pierce,  of  New  Hampshire,  and 
William  R.  King,  of  Alabama.  The  "  Free  Soil"  Democrats 
assembled  at  Pittsburg  and  nominated  John  P.  Hale,  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana. 

The  Republican  party,  which  really  grew  out  of  the  Aboli 
tion  nucleus  of  1839  rather  than  the  Whig  party,  though 
t IKI re  was  an  amalgamation,  held  its  first  convention  June 
17th,  1850,  in  Philadelphia,  and  nominated  John  C.  Fre 
mont,  of  California,  and  Win.  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey. 
The  American  Nationals,  or  "  Know-Nothings,"  had  assem 
bled  in  the  same  city  in  February  preceding,  and  put  for 
ward  Millard  Fillmore  and  Andrew  J.  Donaldson,  of  Ten 
nessee.  The  Democrats  met  in  Cincinnati  June  2d,  and 
nominated  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  John  C. 
Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky.  There  was  also  a  Whig  Con 
vention,  composed  of  defectionists,  held  at  Baltimore,  in 
September,  at  which  Edward  Bates,  afterwards  Lincoln's 
Attorney- General,  presided.  The  number  of  delegates  was 
so  small,  as  was  also  their  influence,  that  the  convention 
contented  itself  with  an  endorsement  of  Fillmore  and 
Donaldson. 

I860. 

LINCOLN   AND   HAMLIN. 

The  Republicans,  though  unsuccessful  in  the  campaign 
of  1850,  effected  a  most  thorough  organization,  particu 
larly  in  Illinois,  under  the  leadership  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
The  senatorial  contest  between  Lincoln  and  Douglass,  in 


THE  WHITE  HOUSE — EAST  ROOM. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  143 

1858,  served  to  establish  the  principles  of  the  party  in  several 
adjacent  States,  and  the  movement  grew  with  great  rapidity. 
In  1860  the  Republicans  held  their  second  National  Con 
vention  in  Chicago,  on  May  IGth. 

The  call,  signed  by  E.  D.  Morgan,  Chairman,  under 
which  delegates  were  chosen,  was  addressed  to  Republicans, 
and  "  to  all  others  who  are  opposed  to  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  the  Territories;  to  the  new  and  dangerous 
political  doctrine  that  the  Constitution,  of  its  own  force, 
carries  slavery  into  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States; 
to  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave  trade,"  and  so  on. 
George  Ashman,  of  Massachusetts,  was  made  Chairman,  and 
was  escorted  forward  by  Preston  King  and  Carl  Schurz.  A 
great  picture  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  hall 
decorations. 

The  first  sensational  feature  came  on  the  second  day,  over 
the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Credentials. 

Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  moved  to  exclude  Maryland, 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  the  District  of  Columbia,  Kansas  and 
Nebraska,  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  Republican 
organization  in  those  States,  and  that  the  delegations  had 
been  brought  there  by  Southern  influence. 

This  was  bitterly  opposed  by  Ewing,  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
others. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  recommitted  by  a  vote- 
of  275^  to  172^,  and  when  made  again  was  adopted,  the 
Southern  delegations  being  admitted. 

The  latter  part  of  the  second  day  was  devoted  to  the 
platform,  which  was  adopted  section  by  section.  It  took 
the  ground  in  regard  to  slavery  which  the  call  foreshadowed, 
The  tariff  resolution  was  particularly  applauded,  first  by 
Pennsylvania  and  some  of  the  New  England  States,  then  by 


144  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

the  whole  convention.  When  the  Chairman  declared  the 
whole  platform  adopted,  the  vast  assemblage  arose  and 
cheered  for  several  minutes. 

On  the  third  day  came  the  nominations.  Gen.  Nye  pre 
sented  Win.  H.  Seward  for  President ;  Mr.  Judd  named 
Abraham  Lincoln  ;  New  Jersey  offered  W.  L.  Dayton  ;  Mr. 
Carter  nominated  Salmon  P.  Chase ;  Mr.  Blair  spoke  for 
Edward  Bates,  and  Tom  Corwin  for  John  McLean.  The 
strength  of  the  convention  was  465,  making  233  necessary 
for  a  choice.  Two  ballots  resulted  as  follows: 

First  Second 

ballot.  ballot. 

Seward 173>2 

Lincoln 102  181 

Bates 48  39 

Cameron 50>£  8 

Chase 49  2 

Dayton 24  10 

Clay 1 

McLean 12 

Wade 5 

Fremont  1 

Collamer 10 

Reid 1 

Stunner 1 

The  first  ballot  encouraged  the  friends  of  Seward  so  much 
that  they  demanded  a  second.  New  Hampshire  was  the  first 
to  break  for  Lincoln,  giving  him  2  more  votes  than  on  the 
first  ballot.  Vermont  and  other  New  England  States  fol 
lowed,  giving  Lincoln  a  gain  of  17.  Pennsylvania,  fearful 
of  Seward,  and  seeing  Lincoln's  chances  were  the  best  of 
the  other  candidates,  gave  him  a  solid  vote.  The  second 
ballot  showed  a  gain  of  79  for  Lincoln  and  of  11  for  Seward. 
The  New  Yorkers,  however,  were  still  confident,  and  pressed 
for  a  third  ballot,  but  were  disappointed  by  Massachusetts, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Kentucky  going  almost 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  145 

solidly  for  Lincoln.  He  lacked  only  2^  votes  of  the  nomi 
nation  when  the  call  was  finished,  and  before  the  result  was 
announced  Ohio  had  changed  4  to  him.  B.  Gratz  Brown 
then  gave  "Missouri's  18  votes  for  that  gallant  son  of  the 
West,  Abraham  Lincoln."  Other  changes  were  made,  and 
the  vote  as  announced  gave  Lincoln  354  out  of  the  465. 
Mr.  Evarts,  of  New  York,  moved  to  make  Lincoln's  nomi 
nation  unanimous,  and  it  was  done.  Some  of  the  New  York 
delegates  were  in  tears  when  references  were  made  to 
Seward.  They  attributed  their  leader's  defeat  chiefly  to 
Horace  Greeley. 

Hannibal  Hamlin,  Cassius  M.  Clay  and  N.  P.  Banks  were 
presented  for  Vice-President.  The  first  ballot  stood :  Ham 
lin,  194;  Clay,  101£;  Banks,  38  J.  The  second  ballot  gave 
Hamlin  367  and  the  nomination. 

During  the  consideration  of  the  platform,  Mr.  Giddings 
attempted  to  have  introduced  the  clause  from  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  guaranteeing  "  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  Failing,  he  attempted  to  leave  the 
convention,  but  was  detained  by  the  New  York  delegates. 
Subsequently,  George  William  Curtis  secured  the  introduc 
tion  of  the  substance  of  Mr.  Giddings'  amendment. 

Among  the  representatives  of  Missouri  in  the  convention 
were  Frank  P.  Blair  and  B.  Gratz  Brown,  both  of  whom 
were  afterwards  on  Democratic  tickets  for  the  Vice-Presi 
dency.  • 

THE    DEMOCRATIC    SPLIT   AT    CHARLESTON. 

The  Democratic  Convention  was  called  to  order  April  23d, 
1860,  at  Charleston,  S.  C.  At  the  outset  New  York  and 
Illinois  delegations  were  excluded  from  the  Committee  on 
Credentials.  The  State  first  mentioned  was  represented  by 


14G  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 

two  sets,  one  headed  by  Dean  Richmond,  the  other  by  Fer 
nando  Wood.  One  was  called  the  "hard,"  the  other  the 
"soft  shell"  delegation. 

On  the  second  day  Francis  B.  Flournoy,  of  Arkansas, 
was  made  Chairman.  There  was  a  heated  debate  between 
Richardson,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Josiah  Randall.  The 
latter  volunteered  a  remark  that  there  were  delegates 
present  who  were  going  to  misrepresent  their  constituents 
by  voting  for  Douglas.  Richardson  referred  to  Randall  as 
a  new  recruit  in  the  Democratic  ranks. 

The  unit  rule  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  101  ayes  to  198  nays. 

The  third  day  was  one  of  sensational  features.  The 
Southern  delegates  held  a  meeting  and  decided,  "That  unless 
there  is  a  resolution  inserted  in  the  platform  to  protect  the 
rights  of  the  South  in  the  Territories,  they  will  secede  in  a 
body  from  the  convention." 

Governor  Robinson,  Chairman  of  the  Vermont  delegation, 
dropped  dead  from  apoplexy. 

The  following  was  read  in  the  convention,  having  "an 
electrical  effect,"  according  to  one  correspondent: 

BATTLE  GROUND  OF  SAN  JACINTO,  TEX,,  May  21st. 
The  people  assembled  here  en  masse  have  at  this  time  and  place  nominated 
Sam.  Houston  the  people's  candidate  for  President,  in  the  November 
election,  and  a  strong  electoral  ticket.    The  platform  is  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union.    Down  with  all  sectional  issues!        A.  M.  GENTRY. 

The  Douglas  delegates  from  Illinois,  and  the  Dean  Rich 
mond  delegates  from  New  York,  were  given  their  seats. 

The  fourth  day  was  characterized  by  an  avalanche  of 
resolutions  on  the  slavery  issue,  the  Southern  members 
insisting  on  indorsement  of  slavery  in  one  form  and  another. 

In  striking  contrast  with  the  action  on  the  tariff  at  the 
Chicago  Convention,  was  the  following: 


JAMES    U.    BLAINE.  147 

A  resolution  on  the  tariff  being  presented,  Capt.  Isaiah 
Rynders  proposed  to  include  Monongahela  whisky  in  the 
articles  to  be  protected. 

Mr.  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  hoped  the  convention  would 
not  be  made  to  appear  ridiculous  before  the  country  by 
these  resolutions,  and  moved  that  they  be  referred  without 
reading. 

Capt.  Rynders  said  he  desired  by  his  amendment  to  put  a 
stop  to  them,  and  he  had  succeeded. 

The  fifth  and  several  days  following  were  consumed  in  a 
debate  upon  the  platform.  Ben.  Butler,  and  Payne,  of 
Ohio,  made  minority  reports,  which  they  supported  in 
speeches,  but  both  were  voted  down.  The  running  reports 
of  the  proceedings  contain  passages  like  the  following: 

A  voice  cried  out:  "  Mr.  President,  a  mistake.  I  didn't 
second  that  man's  motion  down  there." 

Mr.  Gettings  rose  to  demand  an  explanation.  He  would 
like  to  know  who  it  was  who  spoke  so  disrespectfully  of 
him. 

Mr.  Hooper  rose.  He  did  not  intend  anything  disrespect 
ful  to  the  gentleman,  but  his  name  was  Tom  Hooper,  of 
Alabama. 

Mr.  Gettings:  "  If  no  insult  was  intended,  the  gentleman 
will  call  at  my  room  and  take  a  drink." 

At  length,  on  the  1st  of  May,  the  Southern  States,  failing 
to  secure  their  slavery  plank,  refused  to  vote  on  the  plat 
form,  and  nine  States  withdrew.  The  resolutions  adopted 
reaffirmed  the  Cincinnati  platform  of  four  years  previous,  and 
condoned  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  They  declared  the 
Democratic  party  pledged  to  constitutional  rights  of  prop 
erty,  of  whatever  kind,  in  the  Territories,  and  to  the 
enforcement  of  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court.  They 


LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

sustained  the  rights  of  all  citizens  to  settle  in  the  Territories, 
without  their  rights  of  person  or  property  being  impaired 
by  Congress  or  Territorial  legislation. 

On  the  opening  ballot  for  the  Presidential  nomination, 
Douglas  received  145^  votes;  Guthrie  3(H;  Dickinson  7; 
Lane  6;  Hunter  42.  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and  Minnesota  voted  almost 
solidly  for  Douglas.  Fifty-seven  ballots  were  taken,  Doug 
las  getting  as  high  as  151J  votes.  It  required  201  to 
nominate.  On  the  3d  of  May  adjournment  was  taken  to 
Baltimore,  .Tune  18th. 

The  Southern  delegates,  who  withdrew  from  the  conven 
tion,  organized.  Mr.  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  and  Mr.  Yancey 
were  prominent  in  encouraging  them  to  hold  out.  Just 
before  the  secession,  Mr.  Bayard  said  he  did  not  regret  the 
influence  that  overruled  principle  in  the  National  Convention 
so  much  as  the  spirit  of  Black  Republicanism.  It  was  a 
struggle  for  power  and  plunder — the  corruptions  and  bar 
gains  of  a  general  scramble  for  office.  Mr.  Bayard  was  very 
severe  on  the  New  York  delegates,  who  came  there,  he  said, 
professing  a  desire  to  join  in  such  a  nomination  as  would 
suit  the  South,  but  as  soon  as  they  had  secured  their  seats, 
turned  their  backs  on  the  South.  He  trusted  that  other 
States  would  withdraw  from  the  convention,  and  that  it 
would  be  utterly  dissolved.  This  body  adjourned,  to  meet 
in  Richmond,  Va. 

When  the  convention  reassembled  in  Baltimore,  several 
days  were  spent  in  wrangling  over  the  admission  of  dele 
gates.  Gen.  Clark,  of  Missouri,  tried  to  reopen  the  debate 
on  the  platform,  by  proposing  the  following,  as  calculated 
to  heal  the  breach : 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  149 

That  the  citizens  of  the  several  States  of  the  Union  have  an  equal  right 
to  settle  and  remain  in  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and  hold 
therein,  unmolested  by  any  legislation  whatever,  their  slaves  and  other 
property,  this  convention  recognizing  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  as  a  true  exposition  of  the  Constitution. 

There  were  numerous  encounters.  Whitely  and  Town- 
send,  of  Delaware,  had  a  collision.  The  Keystone  Club,  of 
Philadelphia,  had  a  bloody  engagement  with  a  Baltimore 
crowd.  The  fourth  day  the  flooring  of  the  orchestra  gave 
way,  and  the  musicians  tumbled  over  among  the  delegates. 
There  was  a  panic,  and  one  very  heavy  delegate  jumped  out 
of  a  window. 

Montgomery,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Josiah  Randall  had 
some  harsh  words  in  the  midst  of  debate.  After  the 
adjournment,  Robert  Randall  took  up  the  matter  in  his 
father's  interest,  and  had  a  street  fight  with  Montgomery. 
The  questions  precipitating  these  encounters  were  usually 
trifling  ones,  but  were  magnified  by  the  intense  feeling 
prevailing. 

On  the  23d  of  June,  the  convention  having  been  unable 
to  come  to  any  terms  of  compromise  with  the  seceders,  Mr. 
Gushing  surrendered  the  Chairmanship  and  withdrew.  A 
second  session  took  place.  Douglas  was  nominated  on  the 
second  ballot,  receiving  181 J  votes  out  of  the  212-J  left  in 
the  convention. 

Herschel  V.  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  was  nominated  for 
Vice-President. 

The  seceders,  at  Baltimore,  met  on  the  23d  of  June,  Mr. 
Cashing  presiding,  and  nominated  John  C.  Breckenridge 
for  President  and  Joe  Lane  for  Viee-President.  Mr.  Breck 
enridge  received  81  out  of  the  105  votes  in  the  gathering. 

On  the  2(>th  of  June,  the  seceders  at  Charleston,  who  had 
been  waiting  to  see  what  would  be  done  at  Baltimore,  met 


ifr>0  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

at  Richmond  and  indorsed  the  nomination  of  Breckenridge 
and  Lane,  adopting  the  slaveholders'  platform  as  it  had  been 
presented  at  Charleston.  The  principal  plank  in  that  plat 
form  was  this : 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  protect, 
wht'ii  necessary,  the  rights  of  persons  or  property  on  the  high  seas,  in  the 
Territories,  or  wherever  the  Constitution's  jurisdiction  extends." 

John  J.  Crittenden  called  the  Union  Constitutional  Con 
vention  to  order  at  Baltimore,  May  7th,  1860.  Twenty-six 
States  were  represented.  Worthington  Hunt  was  made 
Permanent  Chairman.  Parson  Brownlow,  Judge  Sharkey, 
Leslie  Coombs  and  Erastus  Brooks  were  prominent  mem 
bers,  the  last  named  warmly  urging  the  nomination  of  Sam. 
Houston,  on  the  platform :  "The  Union,  the  Constitution  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws."  John  Bell  was  nominated  for 
President  on  the  second  ballot.  The  first  call  of  the  roll 
scattered  the  delegates  as  follows:  Houston  57;  Bell  68^; 
Everett,  25;  McLean  22;  Graham  22  ;  Sharkey  6;  Critten 
den  28  ;  Goggin  3;  Botts  9J;  Rives  3. 

Mr.  Switzler,  of  Missouri,  nominated  Mr.  Everett  for 
Vice-President,  and  the  vote  was  unanimous. 

1864. 


The  National  Union  Convention  of  1864  met  at  Baltimore, 
June  7,  being  called  to  order  by  E.  D.  Morgan.  William 
Dennison,  of  Ohio,  was  made  permanent  Chairman.  A 
speech  by  Parson  Brownlow  was  one  of  the  earlier  features. 

The  platform  denounced  slavery,  and  appro  VIM!  the 
determination  of  the  Government  not  to  compromise  with 
rebels. 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  151 

The  adoption  of  a  resolution  disposed  of  the  nomination 
for  the  Presidency  in  this  style: 

"Resolved,  That  Abraham  Lincoln  he  declared  the  unanimous  choice 
of  the  Union  party  as  its  nominee  for  President  of  the  United  States." 

A  ballot  was  taken  and  Lincoln  received  every  vote,  save 
Missouri's  twenty-two,  which  were  cast  for  Grant . 

For  the  Vice-Presidency,  Andrew  Johnson,  Daniel  S. 
Dickinson,  Hannibal  Hamlin  and  L.  H.  Rousseau  were 
named,  and  the  first  mentioned  nominated. 

A  convention  of  Germans,  Radicals  and  war  Democrats 
was  held  at  Cleveland,  May  30,  1864.  John  Cochrane,  of 
New  York,  was  made  permanent  Chairman. 

The  platform  declared  that  the  rebellion  had  destroyed 
slavery,  and  the  Federal  Constitution  should  be  amended  to 
prohibit  its  re-establishment  and  to  secure  to  all  men  abso 
lute  equality  before  the  law. 

John  C.  Fremont  was  nominated  by  acclamation  for 
President,  and  Gen.  Cochrane  for  Vice-President. 

The  purpose  of  this  gathering  was  to  head  off,  if  possible, 
the  re-nomination  of  Lincoln.  Its  callers  were  loud. in  their 
denunciation  of  the  "  imbecile  and  vacillating  policy"  of  the 
Administration,  and  demanded  prompt  measures  to  "  rescue 
the  imperiled  nationality,  and  the  cause  of  impartial, 
universal  freedom,  threatened  with  betrayal  and  overthrow." 
Cluseret,  the  French  communist,  was  cue  of  the  signers  of 
the  call. 

The  Democratic  Convention  met  at  Chicago,  August  30, 
1864.  A  day  was  spent  in  preliminaries  and  in  listening 
to  a  speech  from  Valandigham.  On  the  second  day  Horatio 
Seymour  was  made  Chairman.  The  names  of  George  B. 
McClellan  and  Thomas  H.  Seymour  were  presented  for  the 
Presidential  nomination,  when  Mr.  Harris,  of  Maryland, 


If) 2  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

getting  the  floor,  said:  "  One  man  nominated  here  is  t 
tyrant."  [cheers  and  hisses.]  "He  it  was  who  first  initiated 
the  policy  by  which  your  rights  and  liberties  were  stricken 
down.  That  man  is  George  B.  McClellan."  [Confusion.] 
"  Maryland,  which  has  suffered  so  much  at  the  hands  of  that 
man,  will  not  submit,  in  silence,  to  his  nomination.  His 
offenses  shall  be  made  known." 

Harris  proceeded  to  read  Gen.  McClellan's  order  to  Gen, 
Banks,  directing  him  to  arrest  the  Legislature  of  Maryland, 
He  was  asked  what  paper  he  was  reading  from.  He 
answered:  "Are  Gen.  McClellan's  friends  afraid  of  the 
truth?"  He  said  he  would  bring  all  of  the  charges  against 
Gen.  McClellan  that  had  been  brought  against  Gen.  Butler, 
This  caused  tremendous  excitement.  There  was  a  storm  ol 
hisses,  and  cries  of,  "  You  are  for  Jeff.  Davis  !"  "  You  arc 
a  traitor!" 

Harris  went  on  to  show  that  McClellan  made  the  arrest  on 
purely  political  grounds.  He  should  have  resigned  before 
he  did  those  things.  The  speaker  instanced  the  story  oi 
Louis  XIII,  of  France,  who  ordered  an  officer  to  assassinate 
the  great  Prince  Conde.  The  officer  answered :  "  Sire,  you 
have  soldiers  in  the  French  army,  but  no  assassins." 
"  Now,"  said  Mr.  Harris,  "  you  ask  me  to  go  for  the  man 
who  consented  to  be  an  assassin  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  I 
will  not  vote  for  Lincoln's  assassin,  if  he  is  nominated  in 
this  convention." 

As  Harris  walked  down  the  aisle,  a  delegate  called  him  a 
d — d  traitor,  and  was  knocked  down. 

Morgan,  of  Ohio,  defended  McClellan,  and  said  the  Legis 
lature  of  Maryland  at  the  time  were  inviting  the  rebel  army 
to  invade  their  State. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  153 

When  the  fight  was  hottest,  W.  W.  O'Brien,  of  Illinois, 
jumped  up  and  nominated  Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York. 
There  was  uproarious  cheering  and  cries  of  "  Seymour  is  the 
man."  Had  the  peace  men  followed  up  the  advantage, 
they  could  have  nominated  Seymour  then,  but  an  adjourn 
ment  was  taken  before  a  ballot. 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  day  Horatio  Seymour,  whose 
name  had  been  presented,  as  well  as  Thomas  H.  Seymour, 
refused  to  let  any  votes  be  cast  for  him.  McClellan  received 
the  nomination  on  the  first  call  of  the  roll.  His  vote  was 
202  J;  that  of  Seymour,  251. 

George  H.  Pendleton  was  nominated  for  Vice-President, 
on  the  second  ballot.  His  competitors  were  James  Guthrie, 
D.  W.  Voorhees,  George  W.  Cass,  August  Dodge,  J.  D. 
Catron,  Governor  Powell  and  John  S.  Phelps. 

Vallandigham,  the  idol  of  the  peace  element,  after  the 
nomination  of  McClellan,  arose  and  said  his  heart  was  for 
peace  in  the  convention,  in  order  that  they  might  have  it  in 
the  land,  and  he  would,  therefore,  move  that  the  nonination 
of  McClellan  be  made  unanimous. 

John  McKeon,  in  seconding  Vallandigham' s  motion,  said 
that  if  Lincoln  was  elected  there  would  be  a  bloody  revolu 
tion  over  the  whole  North. 

Mr.  Powell,  of  Kentucky,  followed  in  a  similar  speech. 
He  said  he  could  not  approve  McClellan' s  action  in  Mary 
land,  and  he  believed  he  regretted  it  more  than  any  other 
act  of  his  life.  It  was  a  youthful  indiscretion,  however, 
which  they  must  forget  and  forgive. 

Ex-Senator  Allen  said  the  first  thing  McClellan  would  do 
would  be  to  open  all  the  bastiles  of  the  country  and  destroy 
all  the  instruments  of  blood  and  torture. 


IT,  I  LII  K    AND    ITKI.ir    SKliVK  KS    OF 

Mr.  Bogy,  of  Missouri,  said  his  first  choice  was  Gov 
ernor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  but  he  acquiesced  in  the 
nomination  of  McClellan.  Missouri  was  a  subjugated,  con 
quered  and  divided  people.  They  suffered  from  both 
armies.  Kentucky  and  Missouri  would  unite  and  drive  the 
invaders  from  their  soil. 

1868. 

GRANT  AND  COLFAX. 

Carl  Schurz  was  temporary  Chairman  of  the  National 
Convention  of  "  the  Union  Republican  party,"  which  met  at 
Chicago,  May  20th,  1868,  and  nominated  Grant  and  Colfax. 
Joseph  R.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  was  the  permanent 
Chairman.  His  concluding  words,  on  taking  his  place, 
were  these : 

"  It  is  related,  and  whether  true  or  not,  the  incident  is  well 
invented,  that  on  one  evening  of  that  awful  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  where  legions  of  the  Union  army  had  fought  all 
day,  by  faith  rather  than  by  sight,  in  tangled  brush,  some 
man  asked  Gen.  Grant  to  fall  back  and  organize,  and  he 
replied:  '  We  have  done  very  well,  gentlemen;  at  half  past 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  move  forward.'  [Long 
continued  cheering.]  We  accept  his  spirit  and  his  words. 
Perhaps  I  am  not  anticipating  in  saying  we  shall  accept  him 
in  form  as  our  leader."  [Loud  cheering.] 

Mr.  Conway,  of  Louisiana:  "I  suppose  it  is  a  part  of  the 
settled  policy  of  the  Republican  party  of  to-day,  to  have  the 
South  come  into  this  convention  Union  end  foremost 
[laughter]  ;  but  we  have  another  marked  event  of  moment, 
that  there  is  with  us  to-day,  in  full  part  and  full  fellowship, 
one  of  the  former  Governors,  in  the  days  of  rebellion,  of  one 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  155 

of  the  rebellious  States,  who  has  since  become  reconstructed 
[applause],  and  has  proved  himself  in  fire  true  as  steel,  a 
genuine  Republican.  I  move  that  Ex-Governor  Joseph  E. 
Brown,  of  Georgia,  be  invited  to  say  a  few  words."  [Tre 
mendous  applause.] 

Governor  Brown  spoke  for  half  an  hour,  being  inter 
rupted  by  frequent  cheers,  telling  how  he  had  grown  up 
under  Calhoun's  teachings  as  a  secessionist,  but  had  accepted 
the  results  of  the  war  and  the  acts  of  reconstruction. 

On  the  second  day  Gen.  John  M.  Palmer,  of  Illinois,  was 
called  to  the  platform,  and  the  convention  rose  and  cheered 
as  he  came  forward.  He  referred  at  once  to  the  impeach 
ment  proceedings,  and  said  that  Andrew  Johnson  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  safety  of  the  country  and  ought  to  be 
removed.  There  was  great  cheering.  When  somebody 
asked,  "  What  about  Trumbull?"  General  Palmer  replied, 
"  We  propose  to  leave  such  men  to  a  tribunal  which  cannot 
be  corrupted."  Again  the  convention  rang  with  cheers. 

The  notable  planks  in  the  platform  were  the  second  reso 
lution  on  suffrage,  the  third  on  repudiation,  the  seventh  on 
corruption,  and  the  eighth  on  the  impeachment.  The  last 
was  the  most  enthusiastically  received. 

The  convention  then  proceeded  to  nominate  a  President, 
and  the  name  of  Grant  was  offered  by  Gen.  Logan,  and  was 
received  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  While  the  conven 
tion  stood  cheering  a  dove,  colored  in  stripes  of  red,  white 
and  blue,  was  let  loose  by  a  lady  and  flew  about  the  hall. 
The  band  played,  "Hail  to  the  Chief,"  and  the  building 
shook  with  the  shouts. 

As  the  States,  one  after  another,  cast  solid  votes  for 
Grant,  they  were  cheered  by  the  multitude.  Connecticut 
unconditionally  surrendered  her  twelve  votes;  Georgia, 


K>l>  I. IK  10    AM)    riJBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

through  Governor  Brown,  brought  down  the  house  with  a 
well-put  announcement  of  eighteen  votes,  from  men  some 
of  whom  were  original  secessionists.  Mississippi,  repudiat 
ing  the  traitor  Davis,  voted  for  the  patriot.  Missouri, 
demanding  Grant  on  a  radical  platform,  declared  her  desire 
sat  isfied  ;  South  Carolina,  the  home  of  Calhoun,  with  40,000 
Republican  majority,  joined  heart  and  hand  with  Massachu 
setts,  and  Tennessee  pledged  herself  never  again  to  propose 
such  a  traitor  as  Johnson.  The  vote  closed;  every  dele 
gate  for  Grant,  and  the  convention  gave  itself  up  to 
cheering  and  singing  for  half  an  hour.  Schuyler  Colfax 
was  nominated  for  Vice-President  on  the  first  ballot. 

SEYMOUR   AND    BLAIR. 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  of  1868  was  called 
to  order  by  August  Belmont,  in  New  York,  on  the  4th  of 
July,  with  Henry  M.  Palmer,  of  Wisconsin,  as  temporary 
Chairman.  The  first  enthusiastic  applause  was  when  the 
Chairman  referred  to  the  presence  of  delegations  from  all 
the  States.  After  a  hard  struggle,  a  motion  to  adjourn 
until  Monday,  the  6th,  was  carried.  On  the  second  day 
Horatio  Seymour  was  made  permanent  Chairman,  amid 
great  applause.  A  resolution  from  the  National  Labor 
Association,  favoring  the  Pendleton-Greenback  plan,  evoked 
enthusiasm  among  the  Western  delegates.  Susan  B.  Antho 
ny's  letter  on  suffrage  was  received  with  loud  laughter  and 
referred  to  the  Platform  Committee.  A  resolution  indors 
ing  Andrew  Johnson's  course  was  received  rather  tamely, 
but  the  tribute  to  Chase,  for  his  course  in  regard  to  the 
impeachment  trial,  was  cheered  again  and  again.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  proceed  with  nominations  before  the 
platform  was  adopted,  but  was  defeated  after  considerable 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  If)  7 

skirmishing.  A  speech  was  delivered  by  Gen.  Tom  Ewing, 
and  then  the  convention  tried  to  get  out  Wade  Hampton, 
but  he  refused  to  leave  his  seat. 

On  the  third  day  the  platform  w&s  taken  up.  The  demand 
that  the  public  debt,  unless  otherwise  stipulated  on  its  face, 
should  be  paid  in  lawful  money,  was  received  with  applause, 
so  were  the  declarations,  "  Equal  taxation  on  property, 
including  Government  bonds,"  and  "One  currency  for  all," 
and  the  demand  for  the  abolition  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau. 

The  first  and  sixth  ballots  on  the  nomination  for  the 
Presidency  resulted: 

First.  Sixth. 

Pendleton 100  122^ 

Hancock 33)^  47 

Johnson '65  21 

English 16  6 

Hendricks 2>£  30 

Re verdy  Johnson... S}£  .... 

Doolittle 13  12 

Parker 13  13 

Packer 23  27 

Blair K  5 

Church 33  33 

Necessary  for  a  choice,  212. 

Adjournment  was  taken  until  the  next  day,  when  ten 
more  ballots  were  taken.  On  the  twelfth  ballot  Chase's 
name  was  sprung  amid  an  uproar  of  cheers  and  hisses,  but 
there  was  no  stampede.  Indiana,  at  the  opening  of  the  day's 
proceedings,  changed  from  Pendleton  to  Hendricks.  Vir 
ginia,  Mississippi,  Maryland  and  Alabama  came  over  to 
Pendleton.  Other  Southern  States  followed,  until  his  vote 
reached  157.  Then  New  York  suddenly  dropped  Church, 
and  cast  her  33  votes  for  Hendricks.  Pendleton's  vote  was 
growing  with  every  announcement,  and  but  for  this  sudden 
action  of  New  York,  would  have  received  the  requisite 
majority  on  another  ballot  or  two.  From  the  eighth  ballot 
his  strength  failed.  On  the  eighteenth  ballot,  the  last  taken 


158  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

that  day,  the  vote  stood:   Hancock,  144^;   Pendleton, 
Hendricks,  87;  Parker,  3^  ;  Doolittle,  12;  Andrew  Johnson, 
10;   Chase,  -£;   Hoffman,  3. 

The  next  day,  on  the  convention  assembling,  a  letter  from 
Pendleton  was  read,  withdrawing  his  name.  Three  more 
ballots  were  taken,  the  final  one  showing:  Hendricks,  137; 
Hancock,  135J,  English,  18;  Field,  8;  McClellan,  i;  T. 
H.  Seymour,  2^-;  Doolittle,  12;  Chase,  4;  Hoffman,  ^. 

McCook,  of  Ohio,  nominated  Horatio  Seymour.  The 
Chairman  rose,  and  after  thanking  Ohio  and  praising  Pen 
dleton,  he  raised  his  hand,  and  looking  upward,  said  that  if 
he  should  accept  their  nomination  he  would  be  a  dishonored 
man.-  Concluding,  he  said:  "  Gentlemen,  I  thank  you,  and 
may  God  bless  you  for  your  kindness  to  me,  but  your  can 
didate  I  can  not  be." 

Vallandigham  got  the  floor  and  declared  that  public 
safety  demanded  Seymour's  nomination,  and  Ohio's  vote 
should  stand  for  him.  When  he  closed  his  impassioned 
speech  the  work  was  done.  The  States  changed,  one  after 
another,  until  Seymour's  nomination  was  made  unanimous. 

Governor  Haight,  of  California,  Gen.  John  A.  McCler- 
naiid,  Gen.  Thomas  Ewing  and  Gen.  Frank  P.  Blair  were 
presented  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  The  Southern  States 
endorsed  Blair,  and  he  was  nominated. 

1872. 

GRANT  FOR  A  SECOND  TERM. 

Two  days,  June  5  and  6,  sufficed  for  the  work  of  re-nomi 
nating  President  Grant  at  Philadelphia,  in  1872.  He 
received,  on  the  first  ballot,  752  votes,  which  constituted 
the  entire  vote  of  all  the  States  and  Territories.  Senator 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  159 

Wilson  was  nominated  for  Vice-President  by  changes  imme 
diately  after  the  first  ballot,  on  which  he  received  364^-  votes. 
The  other  candidates  were  Schuyler  Colfax,  321^-;  John  F. 
Lewis,  22;  Edmund  J.  Davis,  16;  Horace  Maynard,  26; 
Joseph  R.  Hawley,  1;  E.  F.  Noyes,  1.  The  nomination 
was  made  unanimous.  Hon.  Thomas  Settle  was  Chairman 
of  the  convention.  The  proceedings  were  devoid  of  sensa 
tional  scenes.  Gen.  Grant's  name  was  presented  by  Shelby 
M.  Cullom,  and  the  nomination  was  seconded  by  Stewart  L. 
Woodford,  of  New  York. 

It  was  in  pursuance  of  a  call  of  the  Liberal  Republican 
State  Convention  of  Missouri,  that  the  National  Liberal 
Republican  Convention  met  at  Cincinnati,  May  1,  2  and  3, 
1872.  On  the  opening  ballot  Charles  Francis  Adams  received 
205  votes;  Lyrnan  Trumbull,  110;  David  Davis,  92£; 
Horace  Greeley,  147  ;  B.  Gratz  Brown,  95.  On  the  sixth 
ballot  Greeley  received  482  votes  ;  Adams,  187. 

The  vote  for  Vice-President  stood  on  the  first  ballot: 
Brown,  237;  Trumbull,  158;  Julian,  134^;  Walker,  84^; 
Tipton,  8;  Cox,  25;  Clay,  34;  Scovel,  12.  On  the  second 
ballot  Brown  received  435  votes,  and  his  nomination  was 
made  unanimous. 

This  convention  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  arraigning  the  Administration  for  corruption, 
and  charging  that  the  passions  of  war  had  been  kept  alive 
for  personal  advantage.  A  civil-service,  anti-land  grant, 
specie-payment  platform  was  adopted.  Gen.  Burnett,  of 
Cincinnati,  referred  to  it  as,  "the  second  Declaration  of 
Independence." 

The  tariff  plank  provoked  a  warm  discussion,  in  which 
Stanley  Matthews,  who  had  been  the  temporary  Chairman, 
used  this  langu'age:  "  I  will  tell  you  one  of  the  reasons  why 


160  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

I  entered  into  this  movement.  It  was  that  I  might  assist  in 
the  work  of  emancipating  the  politics  and  the  business  of 
the  country  from  the  domination  of  rings.  I  mean  political 
rings  in  Washington;  I  mean  railroad  rings,  which  are 
stealing  our  public  lands,  and  I  mean  pig-iron  rings,  which 
are  robbing  the  people,  and  which,  under  the  pretense 
of  relieving  the  burdens  of  the  people,  are  taking  taxes  off 
from  tea  and  coffee  in  order  that  they  may  keep  them  up  on 
stilt  and  iron." 

After  much  discussion  and  several  stormy  scenes,  the 
tariff  was  disposed  of  as  follows:  "  Recognizing  the  exis 
tence  in  our  midst  of  honest,  but  irreconcilable,  differences 
of  opinion  upon  the  merits  of  the  respective  systems  of 
protection  and  free  trade,  we  remit  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  to  the  people  in  their  Congressional  districts,  and  to 
the  decision  of  Congress  thereon,  wholly  free  from  executive 
interference  or  dictation." 

Carl  Schurz  was  permanent  Chairman.  Just  at  the  close 
of  the  first  ballot,  when  B.  Gratz  Brown  had  received 
ninety-two  votes,  he  got  up  from  his  seat  among  the  Mis 
souri  delegates  and  ascended  the  platform,  forcing  Schurz  to 
recognize  him.  After  speaking  of  the  votes  he  had  received 
he  said:  "We  want  a  man  nominated  who  will  carry  the 
largest  Republican  vote  in  this  nation,  in  defiance  of  the 
regular  Grant  organization,  and  that  man,  in  my  judgment, 
is  Horace  Greeley,  of  New  York." 

Schurz  and  the  Missouri  delegation  retired,  and  the  for 
mer  made  his  associates  a  speech  in  which  he  said  the  con 
vention  would  make  a  fatal  error  in  taking  up  Greeley. 

Horace  White  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Plat 
form  and  Theodore  Tilton  of  the  Committee  on  Rules. 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  161 

GREELEY  AND  THE  DEMOCRATS. 

The  National  Democratic  Convention  at  Baltimore  spread 
its  proceedings  over  two  days,  July  9  and  10,  1872,  but  it 
was  a  tame  affair.  On  the  first  ballot  Horace  Greeley  was 
nominated,  receiving  686  votes.  Bayard  of  Delaware  got 
15;  JeremiahS.  Black,  21;  William  S.  Grroesbeck,  2.  Eight 
votes  were  blank. 

On  the  first  ballot  B.  Gratz  Brown  was  nominated  for 
Vice-President,  receiving  713  votes.  John  W.  Stevenson, 
of  Kentucky,  received  6,  and  13  were  blank. 

James  R.  Doolittle  was  Chairman  of  the  convention.  The 
platform  of  the  Cincinnati  convention  was  adopted  without 
the  change  of  a  word,  but  not  until  Senator  Bayard  had 
made  a  speech  vigorously  opposing  "  the  adoption  of  the 
language  of  a  platform  made  by  other  men  not  of  the  same 
political  faith  with  the  convention." 

The  attempt  to  make  Greeley 's  nomination  unanimous 
was  negatived  by  Delaware  and  some  Southern  delegates. 

1876. 

HAYES  AND  WHEELER. 

The  assemblage  which  met  at  Cincinnati  June  14,  1876, 
was  called  as  "The  Union  Republican  National  Conven 
tion,"  and  the  same  signature  appeared  as  in  the  political 
summons  for  the  convention  which  nominated  Lincoln  at 
Chicago  in  1860 — E.  D.  Morgan.  Much  of  the  time  of  the 
opening  day  was  taken  up  with  speeches  from  John  A.  Lo 
gan,  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  Edward  F.  Noyes  and  others.  Ed 
ward  McPherson  was  made  permanent  Chairman. 

The  resolutions,  commencing  with  the  famous  sentence, 
"The  United  States  of  America  is  a  Nation,  not  a  league," 
were  adopted  the  second  day. 


162  LIFE  AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

The  following  names  were  presented  for  the  Presidentia 
nomination:  Marshal  Jewell,  Oliver  P.  Morton,  Benjamii 
H.  Bristow,  James  G.  Elaine,  Roscoe  Conkling,  Rutherfon 
B.  Hayes,  John  D.  Hartranft. 

On  the  third  day  the  balloting  resulted  as  follows: 

1st.  2d.  3<J.  4th.  5th.  6th.        7th 

Hayes C.I  64  r,7  68  104  113          3& 

Blaine 285  206  2&3  292  286  308         351 

Morton 125  120  113  108  95  85           2] 

Bristow 113  114  121  126  114  111 

Conkling 99  93  90  84  82  81 

Hartranft 51  63  68  71  69  59 

Jewell 11 

Necessary  for  a  choice,  379. 

On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Frye,  of  Maine,  Mr.  Hayes'  nomi 
nation  was  made  unanimous. 

William  A.  Wheeler,  Stewart  L.  Woodford,  Marshall 
Jewell,  Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen  and  Joseph  R.  Hawley, 
were  presented  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  but  before  the  first 
roll-call  was  completed  it  became  evident  that  Wheeler  had 
a  majority,  and  his  nomination  was  made  unanimous. 

TILDEN   AND    IIEXDRICKS. 

The  National  Democratic  Convention  in  1876  was  called  to 
order  in  St.  Louis,  June  27.  A  permanent  organization  was 
effected  the  opening  day,  with  Gen.  John  A.  McClernand  as 
Chairman.  On  the*  second  day  some  time  was  given  to 
speeches  by  William  P.  Breckenridge,  B.  Gratz  Brown,  Wil 
liam  A.  Wallace,  James  R.  Doolittle  and  others.  Then  the 
"  Re'form  "  platform  was  adopted,  as  reported  by  Lieuten 
ant  Governor  Dorsheimer,  of  New  York. 

But  two  ballots  were  taken  to  determine  the  nomination 
for  President: 

First.  Second. 

Samuel  J.  Tilden 417  •">::.'> 

Thomas  A.    H.-mlrirks 140  61) 

Winfield  S.  Hancock 75  5!) 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  163 

\7iliiam  Allen 56  54 

Thomas  F.  Bayard 33  11 

Allen  G.  Thurman —  7 

Joel  Parker 18  18 

739  744 

» 

The  morning  of  the  fourth  day  a  brief  session  was  held, 
and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  was  nominated  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

After  this  convention  the  two-thirds  rule  was  dropped. 

A  Greenback-Labor  Convention  was  held  at  Indianapolis, 
with  representatives  from  all  the  States,  at  which  the  late 
Peter  Cooper,  of  New  York,  the  millionaire  philanthropist, 
and  Samuel  F.  Gary,  of  Ohio,  were  nominated  by  a 
unanimous  vote.  Although  the  ticket  did  riot  carry  a  single 
State,  its  popular  vote  was  83,561. 

1880. 

GARFIELD  AND  ARTHUR. 

The  "  National  Convention  of  the  Republican  party,"  as 
it  was  designated  by  Chairman  Cameron  in  the  call,  met  at 
Chicago,  June  2,  1880.  On  the  second  day  Mr.  Hoar  was 
made  permanent  Chairman.  The  4th«of  June  was  taken  up 
in  passing  upon  the  contests.  The  issue  was  between  dele 
gates  chosen  by  the  State  Conventions  and  delegates  elected 
at  the  Congressional  District  Conventions.  Illinois  led  off 
with  half  a  dozen  such  contests.  Two  reports  were  made 
by  the  Committee  on  Credentials.  The  majority  favored 
the  district  selections  as  the  legitimate  delegates.  The  mi 
nority  indorsed  the  work  of  the  State  Convention.  It  was 
Grant  or  anti-Grant.  Illinois  Republicans  had,  as  a  State 
Convention,  selected  a  Grant  delegation.  Several  of  the 
districts  had  held  Conventions  and  had  chosen  anti-Grant 


LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

representatives.  A  test  vote  adopted  the  majority  report  as 
it  related  to  the  first  district  by  384  to  356.  The  ballots  on 
the  other  contests,  which  were  based  upon  a  similar  issue, 
did  not  vary  much  from  this.  The  convention  put  itself 
squarely  upon  record  as  favoring  the  plan  of  district  repre 
sentation,  although  it  had  been  the  custom  in  Illinois  and 
some  other  States  to  have  the  work  done  for  the  whole  State 
by  the  convention. 

June  5,  James  A.  Garfield  reported  the  rules  and  Edwards 
Pierrcpont  the  platform.  The  following  names  were  pre 
sented:  Ulysses  S.  Grant  by  Roseoe  Conkling;  Elihu  B. 
Washburne  by  Mr.  Cassady,  of  Wisconsin;  James  G. 
Elaine  by  Mr.  Joy,  of  Michigan;  Win.  Windom  by  Mr. 
Drake,  of  Minnesota;  John  Sherman  by  James  A.  Garfield; 
George  F.  Edmunds  by  Mr.  Billings,  of  Vermont. 

Balloting  commenced  on  Monday,  June  7,  and  twenty- 
eight  ballots  were  taken  that  day.  On  Tuesday  eight  more 
were  taken,  and  a  nomination  was  made  on  the  thirty-sixth. 
The  first  two  and  last  three  ballots  were  as  follows: 

1st.  2d.  34th.  35th.  36th. 

Garfield —  1  17  250  3W 

(inint 304  305  312  313  300 

Bliiine » 284  282  275  57  42 

shrrmun 93  94  107  99  3 

\V.i-hburne 31  31  30  23  5 

Filmunds 34  32  11  11 

Wimlam 10  10  4  3 

Necessary  for  a  choice,  378. 

When  the  thirty-sixth  ballot  was  announced,  Mr.  Conk- 
ling  moved  that  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Garfield  be  made 
unanimous,  adding:  "I  avail  myself  of  the  opportunity 
to  congratulate  the  Republican  party  of  the  United  States 
upon  the  good  nature  and  the  well-tempered  rivalry  which 
has  distinguished  this  animated  contest.  I  trust  the  zeal, 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  165 

the  fervor  and  now  the  unanimity  seen  in  this  great  assem 
blage  will  be  transplanted  to  the  field  of  the  final  conflict, 
and  that  all  of  us  who  have  borne  a  part  against  each  other 
will  be  found  with  equal  zeal  bearing  the  banner — with  equal 
zeal  carrying  the  lance  of  the  Republican  party  into  the 
ranks  of  the  enemy." 

For  the  Vice-Presidency  the  names  of  Elihu  B.  Wash- 
burne,  Marshall  Jewell,  Thomas  Settle,  Horace  Maynard, 
B.  K.  Bruce,  Chester  A.  Arthur  and  Edmund  J.  Davis  were 
presented.  The  call  of  the  States  gave  Arthur,  468;  Wash- 
burne,  193;  Jewell,  44;  Maynard,  30;  Bruce,  8;  Alcorn,  4; 
Davis,  2  ;  Settle,  1;  Woodford,  1. 

The  nomination  was  made  unanimous  and  the  convention 
adjourned  the  evening  of  June  8. 

HANCOCK   AND   ENGLISH. 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  of  1880  met  in  Cin 
cinnati  June  22,  and  was  called  to  order  by  William  H. 
Barnum.  The  Temporary  Chairman  was  the  present  Gov 
ernor  Hoadly,  of  Ohio.  John  W.  Stevenson,  of  Kentucky, 
was  Permanent  Chairman.  Two  ballots  were  taken,  the 
first  on  the  evening  of  the  second  day  and  the  other  on  the 
morning  of  the  third  day,  with  this  result: 

First.       Second. 

Winfield  S.  Hancock 171         320 

Samuel  J.  Randall 1 2S}£ 

Thomas  F.  Bayard 152}£      113 

Henry  B.  Payne 81 

Allen  G.  Thurman 68>£       50 

Stephen  J.  Field 65 

William  R.  Morrison 62 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks 50}£       31 

SarnuelJ.  Tilden 38  6 

Horatio  Seymour 8 

Scattering 31          22 

Necessary  for  a  choice,  369. 

Before  the  second  ballot   was  announced  changes  were 


166  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

made  which  gave  Hancock  705 — all  but  2  cast  for  Bayard, 
30  for  Ilcndricks  and  1  for  Tilden. 

Mr.  Wattcrson  reported  the  platform,  the  features  of 
which  were  the  denunciation  of  the  Electoral  Commission's 
work  in  seating  Hayes,  and  this  reference  to  Tilden: 

"The  resolution  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden  not  again  to  be  a  can 
didate  for  the  exalted  place  to  which  he  was  elected  by  a 
majority  of  his  countrymen,  and  from  which  he  was  ex 
cluded  by  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party,  is  received 
by  the  Democrats  of  the  United  States  with  sensibility,  and 
they  declare  their  confidence  in  his  wisdom,  patriotism  and 
integrity,  unshaken  by  the  assaults  of  a  common  enemy, 
and  they  further  assure  him  that  he  is  followed  into  the  re 
tirement  he  has  chosen  for  himself  by  the  sympathy  and 
respect  of  his  fellow-citizens,  who  regard  him  as  one  who, 
by  elevating  the  standards  of  public  morality,  merits  the 
lasting  gratitude  of  his  country  and  his  party." 

William  H.  English  was  nominated  for  Vice-President. 
The  name  of  Richard  M.  Bishop  was  presented,  but  with 
drawn  during  the  ballot. 

A  Greenback  National  Convention  was  held  at  Chicago 
June  9,  1880,  Richard  Trevellick  presiding.  Among  those 
named  for  the  nomination  were  James  B.  Weaver,  Hendrick 
B.  Wright,  Stephen  D  Dillave,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  Solon 
Chase,  Edward  P.  Allis  and  Alexander  Campbell.  Weaver 
was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot ;  B.  J.  Chambers  received 
the  nomination  for  Vice-President. 

The  Convention  of  1884. 

The  Republican  Convention  of  1884,  held  on  the  spot 
made  venerable  by  the  birth  of  the  party  and  the  nomina 
tion  of  that  sainted  sire  of  freedom,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  167 

son  of  toil  and  man  of  genius,  was  an  assembly  of  such 
importance  and  incident  that  its  effects  will  be  lastingly  felt 
and  remembered  for  all  time.  The  chief  result  of  which  it 
was  productive  is  seen  in  the  independence  of  political  pre 
ferment  which  it  encouraged.  Unfortunately,  it  has  here 
tofore  been  the  rule,  under  the  "unit,"  or  "two-thirds" 
system,  to  stifle  and  override  all  minorities,  and  compel 
delegates  to  vote  for  candidates  sometimes  the  most  obnox 
ious  to  them;  more  than  this,  it  opened  the  doors  to  corrup 
tion  of  the  most  infamous  kind,  and  made  the  purchase  of 
nominations  possible.  The  abrogation  of  such  a  vicious  rule 
gave  to  each  delegate  all  the  rights  of  voting  for,  and  aiding, 
by  influence,  whomsoever  his  preferences  might  choose;  in 
other  words,  its  repeal  restored  to  each  delegate  the  rights 
which  our  form  of  government  is  supposed  to  guarantee.  In 
a  few  districts  delegates  were  instructed  as  to  how  they 
should  vote  on  the  first  ballot,  but  a  very  large  majority 
went  to  Chicago  with  no  other  predilection  than  to  see  the 
best  man  win,  and,  therefore,  the  complexion  of  the  con 
vention,  immediately  prior  to,  and  even  upon  its  assembling, 
could  scarcely  be  approximated.  I  Besides  this  wholesome 
feature  of  the  convention,  there  was  extraordinary  concern 
manifested  by  commercial  interests,  hundreds  of  leading  busi 
ness  men  abandoning  their  eager  pursuits  for  the  time,  and  hie 
ing  to  Chicago  to  lend  their  influence  to  the  securing  of  a 
wise  statesman  to  lead  the  Republican  hosts.  Much  of 
this  interest  developed  by  reason  of  the  financial  panic  which 
seized  Wall  street  in  May,  which,  though  temporary,  and 
limited  in  extent,  nevertheless  gave  the  entire  country  much 
uneasiness,  and  created  a  fear  lest  the  Chicago  Convention 
should  conclude  its  labors  with  the  nomination  of  an  experi 
mentalist,  or  one  wholly  untried  in  statesmanship. 


168  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

The  avowed  and  reputed  candidates  were  James  G.  Elaine, 
of  Maine;  Chester  A.  Arthur,  present  incumbent,  of  New 
York;  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut;  John  A.  Logan, 
of  Illinois;  John  Sherman,  of  Ohio;  Geo.  F.  Edmunds,  of 
Vermont.  The  "dark  horses"  mentioned  were  Robert  T. 
Lincoln,  of  Illinois;  Benj.  Harrison  and  Judge  Gresham,  of 
Indiana,  and  Gen.  Sherman,  of  Missouri. 

Blaine  and  Arthur  were  the  leading  candidates,  supposed 
for  a  time  to  be  nearly  equally  popular  among  the  delegates, 
the  error  of  which,  shown  on  the  first  ballot,  was  another 
proof  of  the  unrestricted  freedom  of  opinion  which  a  repeal 
of  the  unit  rule  gave  license  to. 

The  convention,  which  met  in  the  Exposition  building, 
was  called  to  order  by  Senator  Sabin,  of  Minnesota,  Chair 
man  of  the  National  Republican  Committee,  at  12 : 30  o'clock, 
Tuesday,  June  3d.  At  the  conclusion  of  Senator  Sabin's 
speech,  formally  opening  the  convention,  and  at  the  request 
of  the  National  Committee,  he  proposed  Powell  Clayton,  of 
Arkansas,  as  temporary  chairman.  Contrary  to  all  prece 
dent  and  courtesy  to  the  committee,  Mr.  Lodge,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  arose,  and  getting  the  attention  of  the  Chair, 
moved  to  substitute  the  name  of  John  R.  Lynch,  of  Missis 
sippi,  and  demanded  that  the  roll  of  States  be  called  on  his 
motion.  This  action  provoked  a  stormy  debate,  lasting 
nearly  two  hours,  but  the  motion  finally  prevailed,  and  the 
States  being  called,  the  vote  resulted,  Lynch,  431 ;  Clayton, 
387,  two  votes  not  being  cast.  Mr.  Lynch  is  a  colored  man 
of  great  ability  both  as  an  orator  and  statesman.  lie  served 
in  Congress  with  distinction,  and  is  recognized  as  one  of  the 
ablest,  if  not  indeed  the  ablest,  colored  man  in  America, 
especially  as  a  parliamentarian.  The  election  of  Mr.  Lynch 
added  to  this  convention  two  more  features  previously 


SCENE  ON  THE   MONONGAHELA,   NEAR  BROWNSVILLE. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  171 

unknown  in  national  assemblages,  the  first  being  a  disregard 
of  the  recommendations  made  by  the  National  Committee, 
and  the  second  being  the  first  election  to  a  chairmanship  of 
a  National  Convention  of  a  colored  man. 

On  the  following  day,  June  4th,  the  convention  met,  but 
adjourned  after  receiving  the  report  of  the  Committee  on 
Permanent  Organization,  and  learning  that  the  Committee 
on  Credentials  would  hardly  be  ready  with  their  report  until 
the  following  day,  Gen.  Jno.  B.  Henderson,  of  Missouri,  was 
nominated  for  permanent  chairman  by  the  committee,  and 
upon  taking  his  seat,  delivered  a  short  speech,  in  which  he 
paid  compliments  to  all  the  avowed  presidential  candidates. 

Upon  the  re-assembling  of  the  convention,  June  5th,  the 
Committee  on  Rules  submitted  its  report,  which  was  followed 
by  a  minority  report,  and  upon  the  motion  to  adopt  there 
was  a  lively  debate,  in  which  considerable  acrimony  was 
developed.  The  question  in  issue  was  upon  the  apportion 
ment  of  delegates  according  to  the  Republican  vote  of  the 
several  States.  The  Committee  reported  the  following  rule : 

Resolved,  That  in  future,  Republican  National  Conven 
tions,  represented  by  delegates,  shall  be  as  follows:  First, 
each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  one  delegate  at  large  and  to 
two  additional  delegates  at  large  for  each  representative  at 
large,if  any,  elected  in  such  State  at  the  last  preceding  Con 
gressional  election;  second,  each  territory  and  the  District 
of  Columbia  shall  be  entitled  to  two  delegates;  third,  each 
Congressional  district  shall  be  entitled  to  two  delegates. 

The  minority  submitted,  as  a  substitute,  the  following: 

Resolved,  That  in  future  Republican  National  Conventions, 
representation  by  delegates  shall  be  as  follows :  Each 
State  shall  be  entitled  to  four  delegates  at  large  and  one  ad 
ditional  delegate  at  large  for  each  representative  at  large,  if 
any, elected  in  such  State  at  the  last  preceding  presidential 
election. 


172  LIFE  AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES  OP 

Second — Each  territory  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
shall  be  entitled  to  two  delegates  at  large. 

Third — Each  congressional  district  shall  be  entitled  to  one 
delegate  and  an  additional  delegate  for  every  10,000  votes 
or  majority  fraction  thereof  cast  for  the  Republican  presi 
dential  electors.  [Applause.] 

Fourth — The  Republican  National  Committee  within  the 
year  following  each  presidental  election  shall  ascertain  and 
certify  the  representation  to  which  each  State  and  district 
will  be  hereby  entitled  in  the  next  National  Convention. 

A  long  debate  was  indulged  in  by  many  of  the  ablest  ora 
tors  in  the  convention.  The  two  following  speeches  are 
examples  of  the  excitement  which  the  question  provoked. 

Mr.  Bradley  of  Kentucky:  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentle 
men  of  the  convention,  I  must  say  that  I  regret  that  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country,  a  proposition  of 
this  sort  should  be  brought  before  a  convention.  Such  a 
proposition  coming  from  the  Democratic  party,  might  come 
with  some  force;  but  from  the  great  Republican  party, 
which  professes  love  and  equality  for  all  the  States,  I  must 
admit  my  astonishment.  [Applause.]  It  is  well  known  to 
this  convention  that  in  the  South  to-day  her  votes  are  stifled 
by  fraud  and  force,  and  yet  you  are  asked  to  take  this  basis 
which  has  been  adopted  by  Democratic  fraud  and  force,  [loud 
applause],  and  make  it  the  basis  of  Republican  representa 
tion.  If  in  the  South  we  are  to  have  Democratic  fraud  and 
force  on  one  side,  and  Republican  disfranchisement  on  the 
other,  may  God  have  mercy  upon  us.  [Loud  applause.] 
There  have  been  times  in  this  country  when  the  South  served 
the  Republican  party.  Three  hundred  thousand  of  her 
brave  soldiers  marched  to  the  battle-field  and  fought  their 
brothers  to  save  this  country.  [Applause.]  It  was  Florida 
in  1876  that  gave  you  a  president.  [Applause.]  It  was 
that  gallant,  brave  hero,  Mahone  of  Virginia,  that  gave  us 
the  United  States  Senate.  [Applause.]  I  say  to  you, 
brethren  of  the  Republican  States,  beware  !  be\vare  !  The 
tariff  issue  is  coming  before  this  country,  and  the  time  may 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE.  173 

come  when  you  will  be  in  the  minority,  and  when  in  the 
South  we  will  have  in  some  States  a  majority,  and  thus  you 
will  fall  by  the  hands  of  your  own  slaves.  We  do  not  come 
to  this  convention  to  dictate;  we  come  here  as  free  men, 
not  slaves;  and  while  we  do  not  ask  to  dictate  a  nomination, 
we  do  say  that  we  decline  to  surrender  our  manhood  and  to 
give  up  our  convictions  to  suit  the  opinions  of  any  gentle 
man,  North  or  South.  [Applause.]  If  the  Republican 
party  in  the  North  stood  by  the  South  in  some  instances,  as 
it  should  have  done,  we  would  have  been  able  to  give  elec 
toral  votes  to-day.  [Applause.]  You  counted  our  States 
for  the  President  in  1876,  and  you  refused  to  count  them  for 
the  Governors.  As  a  representative  of  the  South,  I  am  here 
to  speak  my  mind,  and  come  what  will,  I  would  rather  die 
than  be  false  to  my  section.  You  ask  for  such  a  thing  as 
this  at  the  hands  of  the  Republican  party,  and  my  distin 
guished  friend  said  it  was  equality.  Oh  !  it  is  equality — 
four  delegates  at  large  from  the  State  of  Rhode  Island — 
gallant  little  Rhode  Island  as  she  is — with  only  18,000  Re 
publican  voters,  and  yet  you  want  to  cut  down  the  repre 
sentation  in  Kentucky  to  four  delegates  at  large,  with  an 
army  of  106,000  Republican  votes.  Gallant  little  Ver 
mont,  with  45,000  Republican  votes,  has  four  delegates 
from  the  State  at  large,  while  Tennessee  has  only  four  dele 
gates  with  a  vote  of  107,000.  Do  you  call  that  equality? 
Is  the  party  of  Garfield  and  the  party  of  Lincoln  to  give  us 
such  equality  as  this?  I  say  that  such  a  proposition  might 
well  come  from  the  Democratic  party,  but  from  the  grand 
old  Republican  party,  the  party  that  with  the  shackles  and 
chains  torn  from  the  limbs  of  trembling  bondsmen  erected 
in  this  country  the  grandest  monument  that  has  ever  been 
known  in  recorded  time  to  freedom,  and  underneath  the 
shadow  of  it  14, 000, 000  of  people  sent  up  anthems  of  praise, 
the  swelling  notes  of  which  were  heard  throughout  the  civi 
lized  world,  [applause] — the  Republican  party  with  its 
frand  record  of  noble  -achievements,  the  grandest  ever 
nown  upon  earth,  which  has  been  uplifted  by  the  death 
of  its  martyred  Presidents  beyond  the  stars.  If  we  are  to 


174  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

be  disfranchised,  let  it  be  done  here  and  now,  but  remember, 
my  friends,  in  God's  name,  that  the  time  may  come  when 
the  gallows  that  you  have  erected  may  hang  some  of  you. 
I  appeal  to  the  great  Northern  Republicans ;  I  appeal  to  the 
Republican  States  of  this  Union;  I  beg  you,  do  not  throw 
this  obstruction  in  our  pathway.  Give  us  justice;  spare  us 
your  taunts ;  spare  us  your  frowns ;  give  us  your  encourage 
ment  and  aids,  as  you  gave  it  to  other  States,  and  mark  my 
word  for  it,  that  West  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Florida  and 
the  Old  Dominion,  in  spite  of  Democratic  shot-guns,  in  spite 
of  legalized  murders  that  cry  to  God  for  vengeance,  will  give 
you  their  electoral  votes.  [Loud  continued  applause.] 

Mr.  West,  of  Ohio:  In  response  to  the  gentleman  from 
Kentucky  and  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  I  would  say 
that  I  have  lived  in  Kentucky  in  the  days  when  Henry  Clay 
was  her  pride  and  Crittenden  her  glory.  I  come  to-day 
from  the  State  of  Chase,  of  Giddings,  of  Wade  and  of  the 
illustrious  men  who,  with  Garfield,  look  down  upon  us* from 
above.  Gentlemen,  the  Republican  party  has  not  yet  ful 
filled  its  mission.  Although  it  has  secured  the  personal 
liberty  of  the  bondmen,  their  political  liberty  is  not  yet  se 
cured,  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  the  Republican  party  must 
live  until  the  home  of  Mahone,  of  Bradley  and  of  Lynch 
shall  be  fully  represented  according  to  their  strength.  [Ap 
plause.]  Yes,  I  am  ready  to  raise  the  standard  up;  I  am 
ready  to  incorporate  it  in  our  plank,  that  we  will  carry  on 
the  war  until  the  scenes  of  Danville  and  the  scenes  of  Co- 
piah  will  be  impossible  under  the  flag  of  my  country.  Gen 
tlemen,  we  must  not,  we  dare  not,  we  cannot,  and  I  hope  to 
God  the  day  will  never  come  when  I  shall  be  a  member  of 
the  convention  the  representation  of  which  shall  be  deter 
mined  by  the  shot-gun  and  the  tissue  ballot. 

The  sentiment  of  the  convention  was  so  overwhelmingly 
adverse  to  the  minority  substitute  that  Mr.  Bishop,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  had  moved  its  adoption,  got  the  floor, 
and  in  the  following  language  withdrew  his  motion: 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  175 

It  is  entirely  evident  what  the  sentiment  of  this  convention 
is.  It  is  not  for  those  of  us  who  have  held  a  different  view 
to  say  that  that  sentiment  is  not  right,  we  bow  with  entire 
cheerfulness  to  the  sentiment  of  the  convention,  because  we 
wish  to  have  as  much  earnestness  in  our  feeling  for  the  Re 
publicans  of  the  South  as  any  Republicans  in  the  country. 
I  therefore  withdraw  the  motion  made  by  me.  [Applause.] 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  adopted,  with  only  two 
dissenting  votes. 

The  Committee  on  Resolutions  then  announced  their  re 
port,  whereupon  Mr.  McKinley  read  the  platform,  as  fol 
lows  : 

THE    REPUBLICAN   PLATFORM. 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  in  National  Conven 
tion  assembled,  renew  their  allegiance  to  the  principles  upon 
which  they  have  triumphed  in  six  successive  presidential 
elections,  and  congratulate  the  American  people  on  the  at 
tainment  of  so  many  results  in  legislation  and  administra 
tion  by  which  the  Republican  party  has,  after  saving  the 
Union,  done  so  much  to  render  its  institutions  just,  equal 
and  beneficial,  the  safeguard  of  liberty,  and  the  embodiment 
of  the  best  thought  and  highest  purposes  of  our  citizens. 
The  Republican  party  has  gained  its  strength  by  quick  and 
faithful  response  to  the  demands  of  the  people  for  the  free 
dom  and  equality  of  all  men;  for  a  united  nation,  assuring 
the  rights  of  all  citizens ;  for  the  elevation  of  labor ;  for  an 
honest  currency ;  for  purity  in  legislation,  and  for  integrity 
and  accountability  in  all  departments  of  the  government; 
and  it  accepts  anew  the  duty  of  leading  in  the  work  of  pro 
gress  and  reform. 

GARFIELD. 

We  lament  the  death  of  President  Garfield,  whose  sound 
statesmanship,  long  conspicuous  in  Congress,  gave  promise 
of  a  strong  and  successful  administration,  a  promise  fully 
realized  during  the  short  period  of  his  office  as  President  of 
the  United  States.  His  distinguished  success  in  war  and 


176  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

peace  has  endeared   him   to   the   hearts   of   the   America 
people. 

ARTHUR. 

In  the  administration  of  President  Arthur  we  recognize  j 
wise,  conservative  and  patriotic  policy,  under  which  th« 
country  has  been  blessed  with  remarkable  prosperity,  an( 
we  believe  his  eminent  services  are  entitled  to,  and  will  re 
ceive,  the  hearty  approval  of  every  citizen. 

THE    TARIFF. 

It  is  the  first  duty  of  a  good  government  to  protect  the 
rights  and  promote  the  interests  of  its  own  people.  Tin 
largest  diversity  of  industry  is  most  productive  of  genera! 
prosperity,  and  of  the  comfort  and  independence  of  the  peo 
ple.  We,  therefore,  demand  that  the  imposition  of  duties 
on  foreign  imports  shall  be  made,  not  "  for  revenue  only," 
but  that,  in  raising  the  requisite  revenues  for  the  govern 
ment,  such  duties  shall  be  so  levied  as  to  afford  security  tc 
our  diversified  industries  and  protection  to  the  rights  anc 
wages  of  the  laborer  to  the  end  that  active  and  intelligent 
labor,  as  well  as  capital,  may  have  its  just  reward,  and  the 
laboring  man  his  full  share  in  the  national  prosperity 
Against  the  so-called  economic  system  of  the  Democratic 
party,  which  would  degrade  our  laborer  to  the  foreign  stand 
ard,  we  enter  our  earnest  protest.  The  Democratic  part} 
has  failed  completely  to  relieve  the  people  of  the  burden  o1 
unnecessary  taxation  by  a  wise  reduction  of  the  surplus  reve 
nues.  The  Republican  party  pledges  itself  to  correct  the 
inequalities  of  the  tariff  and  to  reduce  the  surplus,  not  b} 
the  vicious  and  indiscriminate  process  of  horizontal  reduc 
tion,  but  by  such  methods  as  will  relieve  the  tax-payer  with 
out  injuring  the  laborer  and  the  great  producing  interest? 
of  the  country. 

We  recognize  the  importance  of  sheep  husbandry  in  the 
United  States,  the  serious  depression  which  it  is  now  ex 
periencing  and  the  danger  threatening  its  future  prosperity 
and  we  therefore  respect  the  demands  of  the  representatives 
of  this  important  agricultural  interest  for  a  readjustment  oJ 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  177 

the  duty  upon  foreign  wool,  in  order  that  such  industry  shall 
have  full  and  adequate  protection. 

FINANCE. 

We  have  always  recommended  the  best  money  known  to 
the  civilized  world,  and  we  urge  that  efforts  should  be  made  to 
unite  all  commercial  nations  in  the  establishment  of  an  in 
ternational  standard  which  shall  fix  for  all  the  relative  value 
of  gold  and  silver  coinage. 

COMMERCE. 

The  regulation  of  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  be 
tween  the  States  is  one  of  the  most  important  prerogatives 
of  the  general  government,  and  the  Republican  party  dis 
tinctly  announces  its  purpose  to  support  such  legislation  as 
will  fully  and  efficiently  carry  out  the  constitutional  power 
of  Congress  over  inter-state  commerce.  The  principle  of  the 
public  regulation  of  railway  corporations  is  a  wise  and  salu 
tary  one  for  the  protection  of  all  classes  of  the  people,  and 
we  favor  legislation  that  shall  prevent  unjust  discriminations 
and  excessive  charges  for  transportation,  and  that  shall  se 
cure  to  the  people  and  the  railways  alike  the  fair  and  equal 
protection  of  the  laws. 

LABOR   AND    EDUCATION. 

We  favor  the  establishment  of  a  national  bureau  of  labor, 
the  enforcement  of  the  eight  hour  law  and  a  judicious  sys 
tem  of  general  education  by  adequate  appropriations  from 
the  national  revenues  wherever  the  same  is  needed. 

We  believe  that  everywhere  the  protection  to  a  citizen  of 
American  birth  must  be  secured  to  citizens  by  American 
adoption,  and  we  favor  the  settlement  of  national  differen 
ces  by  international  arbitration. 

CONTRACT    LABOR. 

The  Republican  party,  having  its  birth  in  a  hatred  of  slave 
labor,  and  a  desire  that  all  men  may  be  truly  free  and 
equal,  is  unalterably  opposed  to  placing  our  workingmen  in 
competition  with  any  form  of  servile  labor,  whether  at  home 


178  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

or  abroad.  In  this  spirit  we  denounce  the  importation  of 
contract  labor,  whether  from  Europe  or  Asia,  as  an  of 
fence  against  the  spirit  of  American  institutions,  and  we 
pledge  ourselves  to  sustain  the  present  law  restricting  Chi 
nese  immigration,  and  to  provide  such  further  legislation 
as  is  necessary  to  carry  out  its  purposes. 

CIVIL-SERVICE    REFORM. 

The  reform  of  the  civil  service  auspiciously  begun  under 
Republican  administration  should  be  completed  by  the  fur 
ther  extension  of  the  reform  system  already  established  by 
law  to  all  the  grades  of  the  service  to  which  it  is  applicable. 
The  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  reform  should  be  observed  in  all 
executive  appointments,  and  all  laws  at  variance  with  the  ob 
jects  of  existing  reform  legislation  should  be  repealed,  to 
the  end  that  the  dangers  to  free  institutions  which  lurk  in  the 
power  of  official  patronage  may  be  wisely  and  effectively 
avoided. 

LANDS. 

The  public  lands  are  a  heritage  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  and  should  be  reserved,  as  far  as  possible,  for  small 
holdings  by  actual  settlers.  We  are  opposed  to  the  acquisi 
tion  of  large  tracts  of  these  lands  by  corporations  or  indi 
viduals,  especially  where  such  holdings  are  in  the  hands  of 
non-residents,  aliens,  and  we  will  endeaver  to  obtain  such 
legislation  as  will  tend  to  correct  this  evil,  with  command  of 
Congress  for  the  speedy  recovery  of  land  grants  which  have 
lapsed  by  reason  of  non-compliance  with  the  acts  of  incor 
poration,  in  all  cases  where  there  has  been  no  attempt  in 
good  faith  to  perform  the  conditions  of  such  grants. 

PENSIONS. 

The  grateful  thanks  of  the  American  people  are  due  to  the 
Union  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  late  war,  and  the  Republi 
can  party  stands  pledged  to  suitable  pensions  for  all  who 
were  disabled  and  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who 
died  in  the  war.  The  Republican  party  also  pledges  itself 
to  the  repeal  of  the  limitation  contained  in  the  arrears  act  of 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  179 

1877,  so  that  all  invalid  soldiers  shall  share  alike  and  their 
pensions  begin  with  the  date  of  disability  or  discharge,  and 
not  with  the  date  of  the  application. 

FOREIGN    POLICY. 

The  Republican  party  favors  a  policy  which  shall  keep  us 
from  entanglings  with  foreign  nations;  which  gives  us  the 
right  to  expect  that  foreigners  shall  refrain  from  meddling 
in  American  affairs;  the  policy  which  seeks  peace  and  trade 
with  all  powers,  but  especially  with  those  of  the  western 
hemisphere. 

THE  NAVY. 

We  demand  the  restoration  of  our  navy  to  its  old  time 
strength  and  efficiency,  that  it  may  in  any  sea  protect  the 
rights  of  American  citizens  in  the  interest  of  American 
commerce,  and  we  call  on  Congress  to  remove  the  burdens 
which  American  shipping  has  been  depressed  by,  so  that  it 
may  again  be  true  that  we  have  a  commerce  which  leaves  no 
sea  unexplored,  and  which  takes  no  law  from  superior  force. 

THE    TERRITORIES . 

Resolved,  That  appointments  by  the  President  to  offices 
in  the  territories  should  be  made  from  the  bonafide  citizens 
and  residents  of  the  territories  therein. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  enact  such  laws 
as  shall  promptly  and  effectually  suppress  the  system  of 
polygamy  within  our  territory,  and  divorce  the  political 
from  the  ecclesiastical  power  of  the  so-called  Mormon 
church,  and  that  it  should  be  rigidly  enforced  by  the  civil 
authorities  if  possible,  and  by  the  military  if  need  be. 

WITH  A  BIG  N. 

The  people  of  the  United  States,  in  this  organized  capacity, 
constitute  a  nation  and  not  a  confederacy  of  States.  The 
national  government  is  supreme  in  the  sphere  of  its  na 
tional  duty,  and  the  States  have  a  reserved  right  which 
should  be  faithfully  maintained.  Each  should  be  guarded 


180  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

with  jealous  care,  so  that  the  harmony  of  ou-r  system  of 
government  may  be  preserved  and  the  Union  kept  inviolate. 

FREE   BALLOT. 

The  perpetuity  of  our  institutions  rests  upon  the  main 
tenance  of  a  free  ballot  and  honest  count  and  correct  re 
turns.  We  denounce  the  fraud  and  violence  practiced  by 
the  Democracy  in  the  Southern  States,  by  which  the  will  of 
the  voter  is  defeated,  as  dangerous  to  the  preservation  of 
free  institutions,  and  we  solemnly  arraign  the  Democratic 
party  as  being  the  guility  recipient  of  the  fruits  of  such 
fraud  and  violence. 

We  extend  to  the  Republicans  of  the  South,  regardless  of 
their  former  party  affiliations,  our  cordial  sympathy,  and 
pledge  to  them  our  most  earnest  efforts  to  promote  the  pas 
sage  of  such  legislation  as  will  secure  to  every  citizen,  of 
whatever  race  or  color,  the  full  and  complete  recognition, 
possession  and  exercise  of  all  political  rights. 

Upon  motion  of  Mr.  Bush,  of  California,  the  platform 
was  unanimously  adopted. 

After  calling  the  roll  of  States  and  announcing  the  newly 
elected  members  of  the  National  Committee,  a  recess  was 
taken  until  7  p.  M. 

The  convention  was  called  to  order  again  at  7:30  and,  in 
pursuance  of  the  regular  order  of  business,  nominations  of 
candidates  for  President  were  begun. 

The  name  of  Joseph  R.  Hawley  was  presented  by  Mr. 
Brandigee,  of  Connecticut,  in  an  eloquent  speech  of  half  an 
hour's  duration.  He  was  followed  by  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  of 
Illinois,  who  nominated  John  A.  Logan,  speaking  with  great 
earnestness  and  eloquence,  and  exciting  the  convention  to  a 
wild  enthusiasm. 

Judge  West,  "the  blind  man  eloquent,"  from  Ohio,  next 
put  in  nomination  James  G.  Blaine.  Those  present  can 
never  forget  the  scenes  which  followed  the  first  mention  of 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  181 

the  man  from  Maine,   by  the  orator  chosen  to  present  the 
name  of  Blaine  to  the  convention. 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  national  pride  that  we  refer  to 
Webster,  Clay,  Henry,  Douglas,  Lincoln  and  other  great 
orators,  excerpts  from  whose  speeches  we,  as  boys,  delight  in 
declaiming  from  the  school  rostrum,  and,  as  men,  stand 
charmed  before  the  graceful  delivery,  forgetful,  or  unap- 
preciative  of  the  eloquent  speakers  who  honor  this  age. 
Old  times  are  common  events  looked  at  through  a  field-glass 
of  great  magnifying  power,  while  facts  of  to-day  are  ex 
amined  through  the  same  glass  inverted,  always  dwarfing  by 
comparison.  We  have  had  many,  many  great  statesmen 
and  brilliant  orators,  whose  merits  are  best  disclosed  in  the 
incomparable  government  which  they  have  builded,  sus 
tained  and  improved.  But  the  day  of  orators  is  not  yet 
passed,  for  we  may  point  to  Ingersoll,  Conkling,  Curtis, 
West  and  others  yet,  and  with  truth  declare  them  the  peers 
of  any  who  have  gone  before.  Who  can  match  the  magnifi 
cent,  soul-thrilling  speech  of  Robt.  G.  Ingersoll,  placing 
Blaine  in  nomination  at  Cincinnati  in  1876 ;  his  were  words 
that  burn,  the  magnetizing  battery  that  drew  an  entire  con 
vention  after  him  and  made  the  people  everywhere  thrill 
with  a  very  ecstacy.  Cataline  never  moved  hearts  more 
thoroughly,  or  with  words  charmed  the  listening  ear  more 
rapturously,  than  did  the  mighty  Ingersoll  on  that  occasion. 
There  are  now  four  speeches,  made  in  as  many  consecutive 
Republican  National  Conventions,  that  have  passed  into  his 
tory  and  will  be  read  by  untold  generations  with  an  enthu- 
siam  that  infected  the  very  world  at  their  first  delivery. 
They  are  here  reproduced  in  their  order  of  time  and  merit, 
which  are  strangely  enough  coincident. 


182  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

Ingersoll's  Great  Speech  Nominating  Blaine. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  Massachusetts 
may  be  satisfied  with  the  loyalty  of  Benjamin  H.  Bristow  ; 
so  am  I ;  but  if  any  man  nominated  by  this  convention  can 
not  carry  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  I  am  not  satisfied  with 
the  loyalty  of  that  State.  If  the  nominees  of  this  conven 
tion  can  not  carry  the  grand  old  commonwealth  of  Massa 
chusetts  by  75,000  majority,  I  would  advise  them  to  sell  out 
Faneuil  Hall  as  a  Democratic  headquarters.  I  would  advise 
them  to  take  from  Bunker  Hill  that  old  monument  of  glory. 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand  as  their 
leader  in  the  great  contest  of  1876,  a  man  of  intelligence, 
a  man  of  well  known  and  approved  political  opinions. 
They  demand  a  statesman ;  they  demand  a  reformer  after 
as  well  as  before  the  election.  They  demand  a  political!  in 
the  highest,  broadest  and  best  sense — a  man  of  superb 
moral  courage.  They  demand  a  man  acquainted  with  public 
affairs,  with  the  wants  of  the  people;  with  not  only  the 
requirements  of  the  hour,  but  with  the  demands  of  the 
future.  [Applause.] 

They  demand  a  man  broad  enough  to  comprehend  the  re 
lations  of  this  government  to  the  other  nations  of  the  earth. 
They  demand  a  man  well  versed  in  the  powers,  duties  and 
prerogatives  of  each  and  every  department  of  this  govern 
ment.  They  demand  a  man  who  will  sacredly  preserve  the 
financial  honor  of  the  United  States ;  one  who  knows 
enough  to  know  that  the  national  debt  must  be  paid  through 
the  prosperity  of  this  people;  one  who  knows  enough  to 
know  that  all  the  financial  theories  in  the  world  can  not  re 
deem  a  single  dollar;  one  who  knows  enough  to  know  that 
all  the  money  must  be  made,  not  by  law,  but  by  labor;  one 
who  knows  enough  to  know  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have  the  industry  to  make  the  money,  and  the  honor 
to  pay  it  over  just  as  fast  as  they  make  it.  [Applause.] 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  demand  a  man  who 
knows  that  prosperity  and  resumption,  when  they  come, 
must  come  together ;  that  when  they  come  they  will  come 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  183 

hand  in  hand  through  the  golden  harvest  fields ;  hand  in 
hand  by  the  whirling  spindles  and  the  turning  wheels;  hand 
in  hand  past  the  open  furnace  doors ;  hand  in  hand  by  the 
chimneys  filled  with  eager  fire,  greeted  and  graspefd  by  the 
countless  sons  of  toil. 

This  money  has  to  be  dug  out  of  the  earth.  You  can  not 
make  it  by  passing  resolutions  in  a  political  convention. 
[Applause.] 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States  want  a  man  who 
knows  that  this  government  should  protect  every  citizen, 
at  home  and  abroad ;  who  knows  that  any  government  that 
will  not  defend  its  defenders,  and  protect  its  protectors,  is 
a  disgrace  to  the  map  of  the  world.  They  demand  a  man 
who  believes  in  the  eternal  separation  and  divorcement  of 
church  and  school.  They  demand  a  man  whose  political 
reputation  is  as  spotless  as  a  star;  but  they  do  not  de 
mand  that  their  candidate  shall  have  a  certificate  of  moral 
character  signed  by  a  Confederate  Congress.  The  man  who 
has  in  full,  heaped  and  rounded  measure  all  these  splendid 
qualifications,  is  the  present  grand  and  gallant  leader  of  the 
Republican  party — James  G.  Blaine. 

Our  country,  crowned  with  the  vast  and  marvelous 
achievements  of  its  first  century,  asks  for  a  man  worthy  of 
the  past,  and  prophetic  of  her  future;  asks  for  a  man  who 
has  the  audacity  of  genius ;  asks  for  a  man  who  is  the  grand 
est  combination  of  heart,  conscience  and  brain  beneath  her 
flag — such  a  man  is  James  Gr.  Blaine.  [Applause.] 

For  the  Republican  host,  led  by  this  intrepid  man,  there 
can  be  no  defeat. 

This  is  a  grand  year — a  year  filled  with  recollections  of 
the  revolution  ;  filled  with  the  proud  and  tender  memories 
of  the  past ;  with  the  sacred  legends  of  liberty — a  year  in 
which  the  sons  of  freedom  will  drink  from  the  fountains  of 
enthusiasm  ;  a  year  in  which  the  people  call  for  a  man  who 
has  preserved  in  Congress  what  our  soldiers  won  upon  the 
field  ;  a  year  in  which  they  call  for  a  man  who  has  torn  from 
the  throat  of  treason  the  tongue  of  slander — for  the  man 
who  has  snatched  the  mask  of  Democracy  from  the  hideous 


184  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

face  of  rebellion  ;  for  this  man  who,  like  an  intellectual 
athlete,  has  stood  in  the  arena  of  debate  and  challenged  all 
comers,  and  who  is  still  a  total  stranger  to  defeat.  [Ap 
plause.] 

Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a  plumed  knight,  James  G. 
Elaine  marched  down  the  halls  of  the  American  Congress 
and  threw  his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen 
foreheads  of  the  defumers  of  his  country  and  the  maligncrs 
of  his  honor.  For  the  Republican  party  to  desert  this  gal 
lant  leader  now,  is  as  though  an  army  should  desert  their 
general  upon  the  field  of  battle.  [Applause.] 

James  G.  Elaine  is  now  and  has  been  for  years  the  bearer 
of  the  sacred  standard  of  the  Republican  party.  I  call  it 
sacred,  because  no  human  being  can  stand  beneath  its  folds 
without  becoming  and  without  remaining  free. 

Gentlemen  of  the  convention,  in  the  name  of  the  great 
republic,  the  only  republic  that  ever  existed  upon  this  earth; 
in  the  name  of  all  her  defenders  and  of  all  her  supporters ; 
in  the  name  of  all  her  soldiers  living;  in  the  name  of  all  her 
soldiers  dead  upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  in  the  name  of 
those  who  perished  in  the  skeleton  clutch  of  famine  at  An- 
dersonville  and  Libby,  whose  sufferings  he  so  vividly  re 
members,  Illinois — Illinois  nominates  for  the  next  President 
of  this  country  that  prince  of  parliamentarians — that  leader 
of  leaders — James  G.  Elaine. 

Conkling's  Greatest  Effort. 

When  asked  what  State  he  hails  from, 
Our  sole  reply  shall  be, 
He  hails  from  Appomattox 
And  its  famous  apple  tree. 

In  obedience  to  instructions  which  I  should  never  dare  to 
disregard,  expressing  also  my  own  firm  convictions,  I  rise, 
Mr.  President,  in  behalf  of  the  State  of  New  York,  to  pro 
pose  a  nomination  with  which  the  country  and  the  Republican 
party  can  grandly  win.  The  election  before  us  is  the  Aus- 
terlitz  of  American  politics.  It  will  decide,  for  many  years, 
whether  the  country  shall  be  Republican  or  Cossack.  The 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  185 

supreme  need  of  the  hour  is  not  a  candidate  who  can  carry 
Michigan.  All  Kepublican  candidates  can  do  that.  The 
need  is  not  of  a  candidate  popular  in  the  Territories,  because 
the  Territories  have  no  vote.  The  need  is  of  a  candidate 
who  can  carry  doubtful  States.  Not  the  doubtful  States  of 
the  North  alone,  but  also  doubtful  States  of  the  South, 
which  we  have  heard,  if  I  understand  right,  ought  to  take 
little  or  no  part  here,  because  the  South  has  nothing  to  give, 
but  everything  to  receive.  The  need  which  urges  itself  on 
the  conscience  and  reason  of  the  convention  is  of  a  candi 
date  who  can  carry  doubtful  States  both  North  and  South. 
And  believing  that  he  more  surely  than  any  other  man,  can 
carry  New  York  against  any  opponent,  and  can  carry  not 
only  the  North,  but  several  States  of  the  South,  New  York 
is  for  Ulysses  S.  Grant. 

Never  defeated — in  peace  or  in  war — his  name  is  the  most 
illustrious  borne  by  living  man. 

His  services  attest  his  greatness,  and  the  country — nay 
the  world — knows  them  by  heart.  His  fame  was  earned 
not  alone  by  things  written  and  said,  but  by  the  arduous 
greatness  of  things  done;  and  perils  and  emergencies  will 
search  in  vain  in  the  future,  as  they  have  searched  in  vain 
in  the  past,  for  any  other  on  whom  the  nation  leans  with 
such  confidence  and  trust.  Never  having  had  a  policy  to 
enforce  against  the  will  of  the  people,  he  never  betrayed  a 
cause  or  a  friend,  and  the  people  will  never  desert  or  betray 
him.  Standing  on  the  highest  eminence  of  human  distinc 
tion,  modest,  firm,  simple  and  self-poised,  having  filled  all 
lands  with  his  renown,  he  has  seen  not  only  the  high  born 
and  the  titled,  but  the  poor  and  the  lowly,  on  the  uttermost 
ends  of  the  earth,  rise  and  uncover  before  him.  He  has 
studied  the  needs  and  defects  of  many  systems  of  govern 
ment;  and  he  has  returned  a  better  American  than  ever, 
with  a  wealth  of  knowledge  and  experience  added  to  the 
hard  common  sense  which  shone  so  conspicuosly  in  all  the 
fierce  light  that  beat  upon  him  during  sixteen  years,  the 
most  trying,  the  most  portentious,  the  moss  perilous  in  the 
nation's  history. 


186  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

Vilified  and  reviled,  ruthlessly  aspersed  by  unnumbered 
presses,  not  in  other  lands,  but  in  his  own,  assaults  upon  him 
have  seasoned  and  strengthened  his  hold  on  the  public  heart. 
Calumny's  ammunition  has  all  been  exploded;  the  powder 
has  all  been  burned  once — its  force  is  spent — and  the  name 
of  Grant  will  glitter  a  bright  and  imperishable  star  in  the 
diadem  of  the  republic  when  those  who  have  tried  to  tarnish 
it  have  moldered  in  forgotten  graves,  and  when  their  memo 
ries  and  their  epitaphs  have  vanished  utterly. 

Never  elated  by  success,  never  depressed  by  adversity,  he 
has  ever,  in  peace  as  in  war,  shown  the  very  genius  of  com 
mon  sense. 

The  views  he  presented  for  Lee's  surrender  foreshadowed 
the  wisest  prophesies  and  principles  of  true  reconstruction. 
Victor  in  the  greatest  war  of  modern  times,  he  quickly  sig 
nalized  his  aversion  to  war  and  his  love  of  peace  by  an  arbi 
tration  of  international  disputes  which  stands  the  wisest,  the 
most  majestic  example  of  its  kind  in  the  world's  diplomacy. 

When  inflation,  at  the  height  of  its  popularity  and  frenzy, 
has  swept  both  houses  of  Congress,  it  was  the  vote  of  Grant, 
single  and  alone,  which  overthrew  expansion  and  cleared  the 
way  for  specie  resumption.  To  him,  immeasurably  more 
than  to  any  other  man,  is  due  the  fact  that  every  paper  dol 
lar  is  at  last  as  good  as  gold. 

With  him  as  our  leader  we  shall  have  no  defensive  cam 
paign.  We  shall  have  nothing  to  explain  away.  We  shall 
have  no  apologies  to  make.  The  shafts  and  the  arrows  have 
all  been  aimed  at  him,  and  they  lie,  broken  and  harmless,  at 
his  feet. 

Life,  liberty  and  property  will  find  a  safeguard  in  him. 
When  he  said  of  the  colored  men  in  Florida,  "  Wherever  I 
am,  they  may  come  also,"  he  meant  that  had  he  the  power 
the  poor  dwellers  in  the  cabins  of  the  South  should  no  lon 
ger  be  driven  in  terror  from  the  homes  of  their  childhood 
and  the  graves  of  their  murdered  dead.  When  he  refused 
to  receive  Dennis  Kearney  in  California,  he  meant  that  com 
munism,  lawlessness  and  disorder  would  always  find  a  foe  in 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  187 

him.  He  meant  that,  popular  or  unpopular,  he  would  hew 
to  the  line  of  right,  let  the  chips  fly  where  they  may. 

His  integrity,  his  common  sense,  his  courage,  his  un- 
equaled  experience,  are  the  qualities  offered  to  his  country. 
The  only  argument — the  only  one — that  the  art  of  man  or 
stress  of  politics  has  devised,  is  one  which  would  dumbfound 
Solomon,  because  Solomon  thought  there  was  nothing  new 
under  the  sun.  Having  tried  Grant  twice  and  found  him 
faithful,  we  are  told  that  we  must  not,  even  after  an  interval 
of  years,  trust  him  again.  My  countrymen  ! — what  stultifi 
cation  does  such  a  fallacy  involve.  The  American  people 
exclude  Jefferson  Davis  from  public  trust.  Why?  Because 
he  was  the  arch-traitor  and  would-be  destroyer.  And  now 
the  same  people  is  asked  to  ostracise  Grant,  and  not  to  trust 
him!  Why?  Why,  I  repeat?  Because  he  was  the  arch- 
preserver  of  his  country,  and  because,  not  only  in  war,  but 
twice  as  civil  magistrate,  he  gave  his  highest,  noblest  efforts 
to  the  republic.  Is  this  an  electioneering  juggle  or  is  it 
hypocrisy's  masquerade?  There  is  no  field  of  human  activ 
ity,  responsibility  or  reason  in  which  natural  beings  object 
to  an  agent  because  he  has  been  weighed  in  the  balance 
and  not  found  wanting.  There  is,  I  say,  no  department  in 
human  reason  in  which  sane  men  reject  an  agent  because  he 
has  had  experience,  making  him  exceptionally  competent 
and  fit. 

What  makes  the  presidential  office  an  exception  to  all 
things  else  in  the  common  sense  to  be  applied  to  selecting 
its  incumbent?  Who  dares  to  put  fetters  on  that  free  choice 
and  judgment  which  is  the  birthright  of  the  American  peo 
ple?  Can  it  be  said  that  Grant  has  used  official  power  and 
place  to  perpetuate  his  term?  He  has  no  place,  and  official 
power  has  not  been  used  for  him.  Without  patronage, 
without  emissaries,  without  committees,  without  bureaus, 
without  telegraph  wires  running  from  his  house  or  from  the 
seats  of  influence  to  this  convention,  without  appliances, 
without  electioneering  contrivances,  without  effort  on  his 
part,  Grant's  name  is  on  his  country's  lips.  He  is  struck 
at  by  the  whole  Democratic  party,  because  his  nomination 


188  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

is  the  deathblow  of  Democratic  success.  He  is  struck  at  by 
others,  who  find  an  offense  and  disqualification  in  the  very 
services  he  has  rendered  and  the  very  experience  he  has 
gained.  Show  me  a  better  man.  Name  one,  and  I  am  an 
swered.  But  do  not  point,  as  a  disqualification,  to  the  very 
experience  which  makes  this  man  fit  beyond  all  others. 

There  is  a  "  third  term"  in  the  case,  and  the  pretense 
will  die  with  the  political  dog-days  that  gendered  it.  One 
week  after  the  Democratic  Convention  we  shall  have  heard 
the  last  of  this  rubbish  about  a  "  third  term."  Nobody  now 
is  really  disquieted  about  a  third  term,  except  those  hope 
lessly  longing  for  a  first  term  and  their  dupes  and  coadjutors. 
Without  effort  or  intrigue  on  his  part,  he  is  the  candidate 
whose  friends  have  never  threatened  to  bolt  unless  this  con 
vention  did  as  they  said.  He  is  a  Republican  who  never 
wavers.  He  and  his  friends  standby  the  creed  and  the  can 
didates  of  the  Republican  party.  They  hold  the  rightful 
rule  of  the  majority  as  the  very  essence  of  their  faith,  and 
they  mean  to  uphold  that  faith  against  not  only  the  common 
enemy,  but  against  the  charlatans,  jayhawkers,  tramps  and 
guerrillas  who  deploy  between  the  lines  and  forage,  now  on 
one  side  and  then  on  the  other.  This  convention  is  master 
of  a  supreme  opportunity.  It  can  name  the  next  President 
of  the  United  States.  It  can  make  sure  not  only  of  his 
election,  but  of  his  certain  and  peaceful  inauguration. 

It  can  assure  a  Republican  majority  in  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives.  More  than  all,  it  can  break  that 
power  which  dominates  and  mildews  the  South.  It  can  over 
throw  an  organization  whose  very  existence  is  a  standing 
protest  against  progress. 

The  purpose  of  the  Democratic  party  is  spoils.  Its  very 
hope  and  existence  is  a  solid  South.  Its  success  is  a  menace 
to  order  and  prosperity.  This  convention  can  overthrow 
and  disintegrate  these  hurtful  forces.  It  can  dissolve  and 
emancipate  a  distracted  "solid  South  ;"  it  can  speed  the 
nation  in  a  career  of  grandeur  eclipsing  all  past  achieve 
ments. 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  189 

Gentlemen,  we  have  only  to  listen  above  the  din  and  look 
beyond  the  dust  of  an  hour  to  behold  the  Republican  party, 
with  its  ensigns  resplendent  with  illustrious  achievement, 
inarching  to  certain  and  lasting  victory,  with  its  greatest 
marshal  at  its  head. 

Garfield's  Beautiful  Tribute  to  Sherman. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  have  witnessed  the  extraordinary  scenes 
of  this  convention  with  deep  solicitude.  Nothing  touches 
my  heart  more  quickly  than  a  tribute  of  honor  to  a  great 
and  noble  character;  as  I  sat  in  my  seat  and  witnessed  this 
demonstration,  this  assemblage  seemed  to  me  a  human 
ocean  in  tempest.  I  have  seen  the  sea  lashed  into  fury  and 
tossed  into  spray,  and  its  grandeur  moves  the  dullest  man ; 
but  I  remember  it  is  not  the  billows,  but  the  calm  level  of 
the  sea,  from  which  all  heights  and  depths  are  measured. 

When  the  storm  has  passed  and  the  hour  of  calm  settles 
on  the  ocean,  when  the  sunlight  bathes  its  peaceful  surface, 
then  the  astronomer  and  surveyor  take  the  level  from  which 
they  measure  all  terrestrial  heights  and  depths. 

Gentlemen  of  the  convention,  your  present  temper  may 
not  mark  the  healthful  pulse  of  our  people.  When  your 
enthusiasm  has  passed,  when  the  emotions  of  this  hour  have 
subsided,  we  shall  find  below  the  storm  and  passion  that 
calm  level  of  public  opinion  from  which  the  thoughts  of  a 
mighty  people  are  to  be  measured  and  by  which  their  final 
action  will  be  determined. 

Not  here,  in  this  brilliant  circle,  where  15,000  men  and 
women  are  gathered,  is  the  destiny  of  the  republic  to  be 
decreed  for  the  next  four  years.  Not  here,  where  I  see  the 
enthusiastic  faces  of  756  delegates,  waiting  to  cast  their  lots 
into  the  urn  and  determine  the  choice  of  the  republic;  but 
by  4,000,000  of  Republican  firesides,  where  the  thoughtful 
voters,  with  wives  and  children  about  them,  with  the  calm 
thoughts  inspired  by  love  of  home  and  country,  with  the 
history  of  the  past,  the  hopes  of  the  future,  and  reverence 
for  the  great  men  who  have  adorned  and  blessed  our  nation 


190  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

in  days  gone  by,  burning  in  their  hearts.  There  God  pre 
pares  the  verdict  which  will  determine  the  wisdom  of  our 
work  to-night.  Not  in  Chicago,  in  the  heat  of  June,  but  at 
the  ballot-boxes  of  the  republic,  in  the  quiet  of  November, 
after  the  silence  of  deliberate  judgment,  will  this  question 
be  settled.  And  now,  gentlemen  of  the  convention,  what 
do  we  want? 

A  voice:     "We  want  Garfield." 

Mr.  Garfield.  Bear  with  me  a  moment.  "Hear  me  for 
my  cause,"  and  for  a  moment  "be  silent  that  you  may 
hear." 

Twenty-five  years  ago  this  republic  was  bearing  and 
wearing  a  triple  chain  of  bondage.  Long  familiarity  with 
traffic  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men  had  paralyzed  the 
consciences  of  a  majority  of  our  people ;  the  narrowing  and 
disintegrating  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  had  shackled 
and  weakened  the  noblest  and  most  beneficient  powers  of 
National  Government;  and  the  grasping  power  of  slavery 
was  seizing  upon  the  virgin  Territories  of  the  West  and 
dragging  them  into  the  den  of  eternal  bondage 

At  that  crisis  the  Republican  party  was  born.  It  drew  its 
first  inspiration  from  that  fire  of  liberty  which  God  has 
lighted  in  every  human  heart,  and  which  all  the  powers  of 
ignorance  and  tyranny  can  never  wholly  extinguish.  The 
Republican  party  came  to  deliver  and  to  save.  It  entered 
the  arena  where  the  beleaguered  and  assailed  Territories 
were  struggling  for  freedom,  and  drew  around  them  the 
sacred  circle  of  liberty,  which  the  demon  of  slavery  has 
never  dared  to  cross.  It  made  them  free  forever.  Strength 
ened  by  the  victory  on  the  frontier,  the  young  party,  undoi 
the  leadership  of  that  great  man  who  on  this  spot,  twenty 
years  ago,  was  made  its  chief,  entered  the  National  Capitol 
and  assumed  the  high  duties  of  government.  The  light 
which  shone  from  its  banner  illumined  its  pathway  to  power. 
Every  slave-pen  and  the  shackle  of  every  slave  within  the 
shadow  of  the  Capitol  were  consumed  in  the  re-kindled  fire 
of  freedom. 

Oar  great  national  industries,  by  cruel  and   calculating 


JAMES    G,    BLAINE.  191 

neglect,  had  been  prostrated,  and  the  streams  of  revenue 
flowed  in  such  feeble  currents  that  the  Treasury  itself  was 
well  nigh  empty.  The  money  of  the  people  consisted 
mainly  of  the  wretched  notes  of  2,000  uncontrolled  and 
irresponsible  State  banking  corporations,  which  were  filling 
the  country  with  a  circulation  that  poisoned  rather  than  sus 
tained  the  life  of  business. 

The  Republican  party  changed  all  this.  It  abolished  the 
Babel  of  confusion  and  gave  to  the  country  a  currency  as 
national  as  its  flag,  based  upon  the  sacred  faith  of  the 
people. 

It  threw  its  protecting  arms  around  our  great  industries, 
and  they  stood  erect  with  new  life.  It  filled,  with  the  spirit 
of  true  nationality,  all  the  great  functions  of  the  govern 
ment.  It  confronted  a  rebellion  of  unexampled  magnitude, 
with  slavery  behind  it,  and,  under  God,  fought  the  final  bat 
tle  of  liberty  until  the  victory  was  won. 

Then,  after  the  storms  of  battle,  were  heard  the  calm 
words  of  peace  spoken  by  the  conquering  nation,  saying  to 
the  foe  that  lay  prostrate  at  its  feet:  "This  is  our  only  re 
venge — that  you  join  us  in  lifting  into  the  serene  firmament 
of  the  constitution,  to  shine  like  stars  for  ever  and  ever, 

|  the  immortal  principles  of  truth  and  justice  ;  that  all  men, 

!  white  or  black,  shall  be  free,  and  shall  stand  equal  before 

I  the  law." 

Then  came  the  questions  of  reconstruction,  the  national 

1  debt  and  the  keeping  of  the  public  faith. 

In  the  settlement  of  these  questions,  the  Republican  party 
has  completed  its  twenty-five  years  of  glorious  existence, 
and  it  has  sent  us  here  to  prepare  it  for  another  lustrum  of 
duty  and  of  victory.  How  shall  we  accomplish  this  great  work? 
We  can  not  do  it,  my  friends,  by  assailing  our  Republican 
brethren.  God  forbid  that  we  should  say  one  word,  or  cast 
one  shadow  upon  any  name  on  the  role  of  our  heroes.  The 
coming  fight  is  our  Thermopylae.  We  are  standing  upon  a 
narrow  isthmus.  If  our  Spartan  hosts  are  assailed,  we  can 
withstand  all  the  Persians  that  the  Xerxes  of  Democracy  can 
bring  against  us.  Let  us  hold  our  ground  this  one  year. 


192  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

and  then  "the  stars  in  their  courses"  will  fight  for  us 
The  census  will  bring  re-enforcements  and  continued  power 
But  in  order  to  win  victory  now  we  want  -the  vote  of  ever) 
Republican — of  every  Grant  Republican  and  every  anti- 
Grant  Republican  in  America;  of  every  Elaine  man  and 
every  anti-Blaine  man.  The  vote  of  every  follower  of  every 
candidate  is  needed  to  make  success  certain.  Therefore,  I 
say,  gentlemen  and  brethren,  we  are  here  to  take  calm  coun 
sel  together  and  inquire  what  we  shall  do.  We  want  a 
man  whose  life  and  opinions  embody  all  the  achievements 
of  which  I  have  spoken.  We  want  a  man  who,  standing  on 
a  mountain  height,  traces  the  victorious  footsteps  of  our 
party  in  the  past,  and  carrying  on  his  heart  the  memory  of 
its  glorious  deeds,  looks  forward  prepared  to  meet  the  dan 
gers  to  come.  We  want  one  who  will  act  in  no  spirit  of 
unkindness  toward  those  we  lately  met  in  battle.  The  Re 
publican  party  offers  to  our  brethren  of  the  South  the  olive 
branch  of  peace,  and  invites  them  to  renewed  brotherhood, 
on  this  supreme  condition :  that  it  shall  be  admitted,  for 
ever,  that  in  the  war  for  the  Union  we  were  right  and  they 
were  wrong.  On  that  supreme  condition  we  meet  them  as 
brethren,  and  ask  them  to  share  with  us  the  blessings  and 
honors  of  this  republic. 

Now,  gentlemen,  not  to  weary  you,  I  am  about  to  present 
a  name  for  your  consideration — the  name  of  one  who  was 
the  comrade,  advocate  and  friend  of  nearly  all  the  noble 
dead  whose  faces  look  down  upon  us  from  these  walls  to 
night  (referring  to  portraits  of  Lincoln,  Sumner,  Wade, 
Chandler  and  other  eminent  Americans  hanging  in  the  hall ) ; 
a  man  who  began  his  career  of  public  service  twenty-five 
years  ago;  who  courageously  confronted  the  slave  power  in 
the  days  of  peril  on  the  plains  of  Kansas,  when  first  beiran 
to  fall  the  red  drops  of  that  bloody  shower  which  finally 
swelled  into  the  deluge  of  gore  in  the  late  rebellion.  He 
bravely  stood  by  young  Kansas,  and  returning  to  his  seat  in 
the  National  Legislature,  his  pathway  through  all  the  subse 
quent  years  has  been  marked  by  labors  worthily  performed 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  193 

in  every  department  of  legislation.  You  ask  for  his  monu 
ment,  I  point  you  to  twenty-five  years  of  national  statutes. 
Not  one  great,  beneficent  law  has  been  placed  on  our  statute 
books  without  his  intelligent  and  powerful  aid.  He  aided 
in  formulating  the  laws  to  raise  the  great  armies  and  navies 
which  carried  us  through  the  war.  His  hand  was  seen  in  the 
workmanship  of  those  statutes  that  restored  and  brought 
back  "  the  unity  and  married  calm  of  States."  His  hand 
was  in  all  that  great  legislation  that  created  the  war  cur 
rency,  and  in  the  still  greater  work  that  redeemed  the  prom 
ises  of  the  government  and  made  that  currency  equal  to 
gold.  When  at  last  he  passed  from  the  halls  of  legislation 
into  a  high  executive  office,  he  displayed  that  experience, 
intelligence,  firmness  and  poise  of  character  which  has  car 
ried  us  through  a  stormy  period  of  three  years,  with  one- 
half  the  public  press  crying  " Crucify  him"  and  a  hostile 
Congress  seeking  to  prevent  success.  In  all  this  he  remained 
unmoved  until  victory  crowned  him.  The  great  fiscal  af 
fairs  of  the  nation,  and  the  vast  business  interests  of  the 
country  he  guided  and  preserved  while  executing  the  law  of 
resumption,  and  effected  its  object  without  ajar,  and  against 
the  false  prophesies  of  one-half  of  the  press  and  of  all  the 
Democratic  party.  He  has  shown  himself  able  to  meet  with 
calmness  the  great  emergencies  of  the  government.  For 
twenty-five  years  he  has  trodden  the  perilous  heights  of  pub 
lic  duty,  and  against  all  the  shafts  of  malice  has  borne  his 
breast  unharmed.  He  has  stood  in  the  blaze  of  "that  fierce 
light  that  beats  against  the  throne,"  but  its  fiercest  ray  has 
found  no  flaw  in  his  armor,  no  stain  upon  his  shield.  I  do 
not  present  him  as  a  better  Republican  or  a  better  man  than 
thousands  of  others  that  we  honor  ;  but  I  do  present  him  for 
your  deliberate  and  favorable  consideration.  I  nominate 
John  Sherman,  of  Ohio.  [Long  continued  applause.] 

Judge  West's  Presentation  of  Blaine  in  1884. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONVENTION — As 
a  delegate  in  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1860,  the  proudest 


194  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

service  of  my  life  was  performed  by  voting  for  the  nomina 
tion  of  that  inspired  emancipator,  the  first  Republican  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States.  [Applause],  Four  and  twenty 
years  of  the  grandest  history  of  recorded  times  has  distin 
guished  the  ascendency  of  the  Republican  party ;  the  skiei 
have  lowered  and  reverses  have  threatened.  Our  flag  is  stil 
there  waving  above  the  mansion  of  the  presidency — nots 
stain  on  its  folds,  not  a  cloud  on  its  glory.  Whether  it  shal 
maintain  that  grand  ascendancy  depends  on  the  action  of  this 
great  council.  With  bated  breath  a  nation  awaits  the  result. 
On  it  are  fixed  the  eyes  of  twenty  millions  of  Republican 
freeman  in  the  North.  On  it,  or  to  it  rather,  are  stretched 
forth  the  imploring  hands  of  ten  millions  of  political  bonds 
men  in  the  South,  [applause]  while  above  from  the  por 
tals  of  light  is  looking  down  the  immortal  spirit  of  the 
immortal  martyr  who  first  bore  it  to  victory,  bidding  to  us 
hail  and  God  speed.  [Applause].  Six  times  in  six  campaigns 
has  that  banner  triumphed,  that  symbol  of  union,  freedom, 
humanity  and  progress.  Some  times  by  that  silent  man  of 
destiny,  the  Wellington  of  American  arms  [wild  applause]  ; 
last  by  him  for  whose  untimely  taking  off  a  nation  swelled 
the  funeral  cries  and  wept  above  great  Garfield's  grave, 
[Cheers  and  applause].  Six  times  shall  that  banner  triumph 
again;  commit  it  to  the  bearing  of  that  chief. — [A  voice: 
"  James  G.  Blaine  of  Maine."  Cheers],  Commit  it  to  the 
bearing  of  that  chief,  the  inspiration  of  whose  illustrious 
character  and  great  name  will  fire  the  hearts  of  our  young 
men,  stir  the  blood  of  our  manhood  and  rekindle  the  fervor 
of  the  veteran,  and  the  closing  of  the  seventh  campaign  \vill 
see  that  holy  ensign  spanning  the  sky  like  a  bow  of  promise 
[Cheers].  Political  conditions  are  changed  since  the  acces 
sion  of  the  Republican  party  to  power.  The  mighty  issues 
of  struggling  freedom  and  bleeding  humanity  which  con 
vulsed  the  continent  and  aroused  the  republic  rallied,  united 
and  inspired  the  forces  of  patriotism  and  the  forces  of  hu 
manity  in  one  consolidated  phalanx.  These  great  issues 
have  ceased  their  contentions;  the  subordinate  issues  re 
sulting  therefrom  are  settled  and  buried  away  with  the  dead 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  195 

issues  of  the  past.  The  arms  of  the  solid  South  are  against 
us;  not  an  electoral  gun  can  be  expected  from  that  section. 

If  triumph  comes,  the  Republican  States  of  the  North  must 
furnish  the  conquering  battalions  from  the  farm,  the  anvil, 
the  loom,  from  the  mine,  the  workshop  and  the  desk  ;  from  the 
cabin  of  the  trapper  on  the  snowy  Sierra,  from  the  hut  of  the 
frontiersman  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  The  Republican 
States  must  furnish  these  conquering  battalions  if  triumph 
comes.  Does  not  sound  political  wisdom  dictate  and  de 
mand  that  a  leader  shall  be  given  to  them  whom  our  people 
will  follow,  not  as  conscripts  advancing  by  funeral  marches 
to  certain  defeat,  but  a  grand  civic  hero  whom  the  souls  of 
the  people  desire,  and  whom  they  will  follow  with  all  the 
enthusiasm  of  volunteers  as  they  sweep  on  and  onward  to 
certain  victory  ?  [Cheers].  In  this  contention  of  forces,  to 
whose  candidate  shall  be  intrusted  our  battle  flag? 

Citizens,  I  am  now  here,  and  may  my  tongue  cleave  to  the 
roof  of  my  mouth  if  I  abate  one  tittle  from  the  just  fame, 
integrity  and  public  honor  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  our  Presi 
dent.  [Applause] .  I  abate  not  one  tittle  from  the  just 
fame  and  public  integrity  of  George  F.  Edmunds  [Ap 
plause],  of  Joseph  A.  Hawley  [Applause],  of  John  Sher 
man  [Applause],  of  that  grand  old  "Black  Eagle"  of  Illinois, 
[here  the  speaker  was  interrupted  several  moments  by  pro 
longed  applause],  and  I  am  proud  to  know  that  these  dis 
tinguished  senators  whom  I  have  named  have  come  with  like 
testimony  to  the  public  life,  the  public  character  and  the 
public  integrity  of  him  whose  confirmation  brought  him  to 
the  highest  office,  second  in  dignity  to  the  office  of  the 
President  only  himself,  the  first  premiership  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  James  A.  Garfield  [Applause]  ;  a  man  for  whom 
the  senators  and  rivals  will  vote ;  the  Secretary  of  State  of 
the  United  States  is  good  enough  for  a  plain  flesh  and  blood 
God's  people  to  vote  for  for  president.  [Loud  applause]. 
Who  shall  be  our  candidate?  " Not  the  representative  of 
a  particular  interest  or  a  particular  class — send  the  great 
proclamation  to  the  country  labeled  the  doctors'  candidate, 
the  lawyers'  candidate,  the  Wall  street  candidate,  and  the 


LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

hand  of  resurrection  would  not  fathom  his  November  grave. 
[Applause].  Gentlemen,  he  must  be  a  representative  of 
American  manhood  [applause] ;  a  representative  of  that 
living  Republicanism  that  demands  the  amplest  industrial 
protection  and  opportunity  whereby  labor  shall  be  enabled 
to  earn  and  eat  the  bread  of  independent  employment, 
relieved  of  mendicant  competition  with  pauper  Europe  or 
Pagan  China.  [Loud  applause].  He  must  be  a  represen 
tative  of  that  Republicanism  that  demands  the  absolute 
political  as  well  as  personal  emancipation  and  enfnnchise- 
ment  of  mankind.  A  representative  of  that  Republicanism 
which  recognizes  the  stamp  of  American  citizenship  as  the 
passport  to  every  right,  privilege  and  consideration  at  home 
or  abroad,  whether  under  the  sky  of  Bismarck,  under  the 
palmetto,  under  the  pelican  on  the  banks  of  the  Mohawk— 
that  Republicanism  that  regards  with  dissatisfaction  a 
despotism  which  under  the  sic  semper  tyrannis  of  the  whole 
dominion  emulates  by  slaughter  popular  majorities  in  the 
name  of  Democracy — a  Republicanism  as  embodied  and 
stated  in  the  platform  of  principles  this  day  adopted  by  your 
convention.  Gentlemen,  such  a  representative  Republican 
is  James  G.  Elaine  of  Maine. 

Upon  the  mention  of  the  name  of  Elaine,  there  arose 
another  shout  of  applause,  which,  spreading  rapidly,  soon 
developed  into  a  greater,  louder,  more  piercing  halloo  than 
followed  the  call  of  Maine.  The  handkerchiefs  of  the  ladies 
were  again  waved  in  unison.  The  delegates  elevated  their 
hats,  and  it  seemed  likely  for  five  minutes  to  be  merely  a 
repetition  of  the  preceding  uproar.  A  happy  innovation, 
however,  was  made.  The  visitors,  who  added  much  to  the 
applause,  wrested  the  flags  from  the  sides  of  the  gallery  and 
waved  them  the  entire  length  of  the  hall.  A  large  national 
flag  was  also  taken  by  a  visitor  from  the  front  platform  and 
waved  amid  tremendous  cheering.  Subsequently,  upon  the 
pole  of  the  flag  was  placed  a  helmet4  exquisitely  formed  of 


5    I 


I 

1 


Jfl 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  1DD 

carnations  and  roses,  with  a  long  white  plume,  which  was 
hoisted  from  a  press  table.  The  helmet  was  the  gift  of  some 
young  ladies  of  Chicago.  Tremendous  acclamations  greeted 
this  happy  suggestion  of  the  plumed  knight  of  four  years  ago. 

Quiet  being  restored,  after  many  minutes  of  wild  enthu 
siasm,  the  speaker  proceeded: 

Gentlemen  of  the  convention,  it  has  been  averred  that  in 
making  this  nomination  every  other  consideration  should 
merge ;  every  other  interest  be  sacrificed  in  order  and  with 
a  view  exclusively  to  secureing  the  Republican  vote  and  carry 
ing  the  State  of  New  York.  [Slight  applause  from  the  back 
seats.]  Gentlemen,  the  Republican  party  demands  of  this 
convention  a  nominee  whose  inspiration  and  glorious  prestige 
shall  carry  the  presidency  with  or  without  the  State  of  New 
York  [applause] ;  that  will  carry  the  legislatures  of  the 
several  Statea,  and  avert  the  sacrifice  of  the  United  States ; 
that  Shall  sweep  into  the  tide  the  congressional  districts 
to  recover  the  House  of  Representatives  and  restore  it  to  the 
Republican  party.  Three  millions  of  Republicans  believe 
that  the  man  who,  from  the  baptism  of  blood  on  the  plains 
of  Kansas  to  the  fall  of  the  immortal  Garfield — in  all  that 
struggle  of  humanity  and  progress,  wherever  humanity 
desires  succor,  where  love  for  freedom  called  for  protection, 
wherever  the  country  called  for  a  defender,  wherever  blows 
fell  thickest  and  fastest — there  in  the  forefront  of  the 
battle  were  to  \vave  the  white  plume  of  James  G.  Elaine, 
our  Henry  of  Navarre. 

Nominate  him  and  the  shouts  of  September's  victory  in 
Maine  will  be  re-echoed  back  by  the  thunders  of  the  Octo 
ber  victory  in  Ohio.  Nominate  him  and  the  camp-fires  and 
beacon  lights  will  illuminate  the  continent  from  the  Golden 
Gate  to  Cleopatra's  Needle.  Nominate  him  and  the  millions 
who  are  now  in  waiting  will  rally  to  swell  the  columns  of  vic 
tory  that  is  sweeping  on.  In  the  name  of  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  from  the  Republican  States  and  of  our  glorious 
constituencies  who  must  fight  this  battle,  I  nominate  James 
G.  Elaine  of  Maine.  [Renewed  applause.] 


200  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SI.!;\K   I.S    OF 

The  nominations  were  not  completed  until  after  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  yet  there  was  a  desire  to  con 
tinue  the  proceedings  until  a  test  vote  was  made.  A  wrangle 
over  the  number  of  ballots  that  should  be  taken,  however, 
led  to  an  adjournment  until  the  following  morning. 

Directly  after  reasembling  at  seven  A.  M.,  June  6th,  the 
balloting  began  and  resulted  as  follows: 

1st  Ballot.  2d  Ballot.  3d  Ballot.  4th  Ballot. 

Blaine 384>£  349  375  544 

Arthur 278  276  274  207 

Lo^an 63>£  61  53  7 

Edmunds 93  85  69  41 

Sherman 30  28  25 

Ihnvley 13  13  13  15 

Lincoln 4482 

Gen.  Sherman 2  2  2 

When  the  announcement  of  Elaine's  nomination  was  made, 
Hashing  out  from  a  hundred  wires  that  connected  in  the  con 
vention  hall,  there  was  a  mighty  shout  of  popular  accord 
sent  up  in  every  city  of  America  that  thundered  in  unison 
with  the  cannons  tired  to  celebrate  the  event.  The  conven 
tion  was  turned  into  pandemonium,  so  vociferous  was  the 
cheering,  yelling,  waving  of  bonnets,  hats  and  umbrellas, 
all  glorifying  in  the  victory  that  had  come  after  three  des 
perately  fought  battles,  in  which  the  people  had  been  arrayed 
against  the  politicians.  Upon  Mr.  Plumb's  motion,  the 
nomination  was  made  unanimous,  and  in  a  few  moments 
afterwards  the  following  telegram  was  read,  which  had  been 
sent  simultaneously  to  Mr.  Blaine,  and  to  the  convention 
to  be  read  : 

To  HON.  JAS.  G.  BLAINE,  AUGUSTA,  ME. 

As  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party,  you  will  have 
my  earnest  and  cordial  support.  ^  .  ARTHUR 


JAMES  o.  ELAINE.  201 

This  telegram  provoked  another  storm  of  applause,  which 
did  not  subside  for  nearly  half  an  hour.  Quiet  having  at 
length  been  restored,  on  motion,  an  adjournment  was  had 
until  8  P.  M. 

The  convention  again  coming  to  order,  prayer  was  offered 
by  Dr.  O'Reilly,  of  Detroit,  treasurer  of  the  Irish  Land 
League,  the  first  Catholic  that  ever  officiated  clerically  in  a 
Republican  Convention. 

Nominations  for  Vice  President  being  in  order,  Senator 
Plumb,  of  Kansas,  arose,  and  in  a  brief  but  graceful  speech 
nominated  Gen.  John  A.  Logan.  There  being  no  other  can 
didate  proposed,  as  each  State  was  called  some  delegate 
arose  to  second  the  nomination,  until  New  York  was  reached, 
which  gave  its  vote  as  sixty  for  Logan,  six  for  Judge  Gres- 
ham,  of  Indiana,  and  one  for  Judge  Foraker,  of  Ohio.  All 
the  other  States  voted  solidly  for  Logan,  but  as  several  del 
egates  were  absent  his  total  vote  was  only  779.  The  nomi 
nation  was  then  made  unanimous,  and  after  the  adoption  of 
the  usual  resolutions  of  thanks,  the  great  Republican  National 
Convention  of  1884  stood  adjourned,  with  banners  waving 
and  cannons  firing. 


202  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XX. 

For  twenty  years,  aye,  not  since  the  days  of  Harrison, 
has  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency  been  received  with 
such  enthusiasm  as  that  of  Elaine  and  Logan,,  either  by  the 
great  body  of  Republican  voters  or  by  their  recognized  and 
trusted  leaders.  Demonstrations  of  ratification  were  made 
in  nearly  every  town  in  the  Union  on  the  night  of  the  nom 
inations,  and  ratification  meetings  have  been  held  everywhere 
since.  In  the  East  particularly  the  enthusiasm  was  intense; 
many  factories  were  compelled  to  shut  down  on  account  of 
the  working  people's  desire  to  celebrate  the  happy  event. 
In  New  York,  the  doubtful  State,  the  carrying  of  which  in 
the  next  election  will  most  probably  decide  the  great  con 
test,  there  were  such  demonstrations  of  delight  as  have  not 
been  witnessed  since  the  war.  Before  twelve  o'clock  Fri 
day  night,  the  day  on  which  the  nominations  were  made, 
ratification  meetings  were  reported  from  Jamestown,  where 
Ex-Governor  Fenton  and  others  spoke;  from  Port  Jervis, 
where  Hon.  Lewis  E.  Carr,  who  had  distinguished  him 
self  as  a  champion  of  Gov.  Cleveland,  addressed  an  im 
mense  meeting ;  from  Corning,  Schenectady ,  Cold  Spring  and 
Poughkeepsie.  Salutes  were  fired  at  Albany  by  the  County 
Committee;  at  Hudson,  where  flags  were  unfurled  through 
out  the  city ;  at  Utica,  at  Rochester,  where  bands  and  crowds 
paraded  the  streets;  clubs  were  formed  at  other  points;  the 
streets  of  Buffalo  were  so  densely  packed  that  travel  was 
impeded;  flags  were  raised  by  hundreds  of  the  business 
houses  at  Troy,  and  bon-fires,  fireworks  and  impromptu 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  203 

torchlight  processions  were  reported  in  every  direction.  All 
this  in  the  one  great  State,  and  before  the  convention  had 
actually  adjourned.  Similar  manifestations  of  enthusiasm 
were  made  all  over  the  North  and  in  many  of  the  Southern 
States. 

That  there  was  a  dissenting  voice  heard  decrying  the 
nominations,  must  be  admitted,  but  it  was  the  same  voice 
that,  stung  with  jealousy,  always  bewails  the  success  of  any 
aspirant.  These  dissenters  howled  that  the  best  and  most 
worthy  men  of  the  party  did  not  join  in  the  outburst  of  enthu 
siasm.  Was  it  not  Abraham  Lincoln  who  used  to  say  that  the 
millions  were  more  sure  to  be  right  than  their  self-chosen 
leaders?  Have  we  not  been  taught  a  great  many  times  that 
the  gentlemen  who  persuade  themselves  that  they  alone  em 
body  purity  and  honesty  and  patriotism,  are  quite  apt  to 
mistake  personal  disappointments  and  grudges  for  holier 
impulses?  Is  it  really  true  that  the  millions  have  lost  all 
sense  of  honor,  and  that  the  dozens  only  are  virtuous?  "In 
soberness  and  truth,"  The  New  York  Times  asks,  "is 
not  the  name  of  Elaine  the  only  name  that  really  stirs 
the  hearts  of  the  Republican  masses  ?' '  The  question  was 
meant  to  imply  that  the  Republican  masses  have  lost  prin 
ciple  and  honor  and  conscience,  but  is  it  not  more  easy  to 
believe  that  some  journals  have  lost  much  that  they  should 
have  kept? 

The  Republican  leaders,  who  have  been  recognized 
through  all  this  contest  as  honorable  and  pure,  high- 
minded  and  patriotic  men — where  are  they?  President 
Arthur  has  been  so  honored,  even  by  those  who  opposed 
him,  but  was  it  not  at  his  request  that  Congressman  Bur- 
leigh  moved  to  make  the  nomination  unanimous,  and  the 

o 

President  himself  at  once  telegraphed  to  Mr.   Elaine  his 


LIFE    AXD    PUBLIC    SKRYH  r.S    OK 

assurance  of  "earnest  and  cordial  support."  Secretar 
Lincoln  has  been  so  honored  by  very  many;  he  at  onc« 
pronounced  the  nomination  "one  on  which  all  Republican 
can  unite/'  and  telegraphed  his  congratulations.  Genera 
Gresham  also  has  been  so  honored,  and  he  declared  tin 
ticket  "one  for  which  all  Republicans  can  work  with  i 
will."  Senator  Edmunds  has  been  so  honored,  and  h.€ 
frankly  recognized  the  fact  that  the  nomination  of  Mr, 
Blaine  had  been  desired  by  the  Republican  voters,  es 
pecially  in  the  great  States  which  have  Republican  electora 
votes  to  give,  and  held  this  "very  strong  reason"  to  believ< 
that  the  ticket  would  prevail.  Senator  Hawley  has  beer 
so  honored  by  many,  and  he  was  prompt  to  send  his  con 
gratulations.  Is  it  not  barely  possible  that  these  men  alsc 
possess  some  virtue  aud  some  patriotism  ?  And  there  is  Mr 
Roosevelt,  who  has  been  proclaimed  the  ablest  and  wisest 
the  best  and  the  worthiest  of  the  whole  array  of  Indepen 
dents,  by  their  own  especial  journals;  from  him  comes  th( 
declaration,  in  an  interview  at  St.  Paul:  "Blaine  is  tin 
choice  of  two-thirds  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party.  ] 
shall  bolt  the  nomination  of  the  convention  by  no  means 
I  have  no  personal  objections  to  Blaine.  He  will  sweep  th< 
West  and  Ohio,  and  will  carry  all  New  England.  I  have 
been  called  a  reformer,  but  I  am  a  Republican."  Whal 
are  we  to  say  of  the  men  who  were  too  pure  to  follow  any 
body  else  than  Mr.  Roosevelt  a  week  ago,  and  now  profesf 
to  be  too  pure  to  act  with  him  ? 

Who  are  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party?  In  Ohio, 
are  not  Sherman  and  Foraker,  McKinley,  Halstead  am: 
West,  all  for  Blaine  and  Logan?  Who  are  the  leaders  ii 
Indiana?  Senator  Harrison  is  for  Mr.  Blaine,  and  so  is 
General  Gresham,  as  was  the  solid  Indiana  delegation  ir 


JAMES    G.    BLAINti. 

convention.  Who  are  the  leaders  in  Pennsylvania?  Mr. 
Stewart,  the  leader  of  the  Independents,  and  Colonel  Quay, 
of  the  Arthur  forces,  are  now  united  as  the  party  is.  Who 
are  the  leaders  in  New  Jersey?  Senator  Sewell  and  Mr. 
Phelps  had  the  entire  delegation,  save  one,  with  them  at  the 
end.  Who  are  the  leaders  in  New  York?  Not  one  of 
President  Arthur's  friends  hesitates  to  support  the  ticket: 
the  old  guard  of  Stalwarts  and  the  old  leaders  of  the  Half- 
Breeds,  Conkling  and  Fenton,  Cornell  and  Platt,  Butcher 
and  Robertson,  Warren  and  Roberts,  O'Brien  and  now 
Roosevelt,  are  united  in  efforts  as  they  have  not  been  at 
any  other  time  for  many  years. 

No,  it  is  not  true  that  the  best  and  worthiest  Republicans 
reject  this  nomination.  It  is  true  that  the  best  and  worthiest 
men  in  the  Republican  party,  as  well  as  the  millions  who 
made  the  nomination,  will  support  it  with  zeal.  Let  us 
not  hear  any  more  the  impudent  assumption  that  the  few 
who  cannot  command  their  private  griefs  are  the  only  pure 
and  patriotic  men  in  the  Republican  party.  On  the  con 
trary,  let  us  hope  that  time  may  presently  bring  them  a 
cooler  and  more  unprejudiced  judgment.  But  whether  it 
does  or  not,  the  millions  are  moving  forward  with  their  true 
and  chosen  leaders,  and  the  millions  govern  in  this  country. 

Of  the  bolting  papers  the  most  conspicuous  are  Harper's 
Weekly  and  the  New  York  Times.  It  is  sufficient  to  say 
of  the  former  that  it  branded  Garfield  as  a  fraud  and  cor- 
ruptionist  of  the  basest  character.  For  weeks  its  cartoons 
represented  Garfield  on  every  occasion  having  his  forehead 
branded  with  the  word  "  Fraud,"  and  carried  its  virility  to 
the  extent  of  demanding  his  impeachment  for  knavery. 
And  yet,  with  all  its  declarations  of  dishonesty  upon  him,  it 
supported  Garfield  in  1880.  What  a  holy  example  that 


206  I.IFK    AM)    Pl'HLIC    SERVICES    OF 

periodical  made  of  itself  in  this  truculent  exhibition;  of 
what  does  its  policy  consist,  to  what  ends  are  its  support 
directed? 

The  New  York  Times,  another  fillibuster  journal  of  un 
known  proclivities  outside  of  jealousy,  is  disposed  of  thus 
felicitiously  by  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean: 

"We  had  hoped  the  convention  would  put  into  the  field 
a  platform  and  candidates  sufficiently  virile,  masculine  and 
American  to  drive  the  New  York  Times  out  of  the  party, 
or  compel  its  stockholders  to  meet  and  unload  their  present 
set  of  imported  Bohemian  scribblers  in  favor  of  American 
writers  who  know  something  about  the  history,  interests 
and  wants  of  the  people  of  our  our  own  country.  The  signs 
are  strong  that  the  result  has  been  accomplished.  The 
ticket  does  not  profess  to  be  a  'shining  shore*  or  abso 
lutely  philanthropic,  golden-rule  ticket.  Its  saintliness  is 
like  that  which  belongs  to  a  bull  in  a  cornfield,  and  which 
impresses  those  who  are  determined  to  go  across  the  field 
that  they  had  better  be  content  with  going  around,  looking  in 
cautiously  through  the  bars.  It  is  a  horned  ticket,  with  no 
nub  on  either  horn,  but  with  a- brisket  like  a  buffalo  and  an 
immense  tossing  power.  It  is  a  ticket  for  its  enemies  to 
get  out  of  the  way  of.  It  has  its  nose  to  the  ground  and  its 
tail  in  the  air,  and  already  acts  as  if  its  horns  were  itching 
to  gore  something.  There  is  nothing  we  would  rather  see 
get  in  its  way  than  the  New  York  Times. 

"The  Times  \s  the  '  Holy  Willie'  of  American  journal 
ism.  Its  purity  is  something  incredible  to  the  ordinary 
corrupt  mass  of  mankind.  And  then  its  diction,  especially 
its  benediction,  is  something  immense  for  its  grace  and 
sweetness.  But  the  strong  point  of  the  Times  is  in  its 
economic  profundity.  As  an  economist,  the  Times  is  pro 
vided,  like  an  owl,  with  four  independent  sets  of  eyelashes. 
One  set  shuts  from  right  to  left;  another  from  left  to  right. 
The  third  begins  at  the  circumference  and  closes  in  toward 
the  centre;  and  the  fourth  begins  at  the  centre  and  radiates 
toward  the  circumference.  With  one  of  these  lids  closed,  it 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  207 

can  see  the  redemption  of  the  notes  of  the  Bank  of  England 
going  on  three  thousand  miles  away.  When  it  Shuts  two,  it 
can  figure  the  premium  on  gold  in  the  outer  ring  of  the 
planet  Saturn.  With  three  of  its  eyelids  closed,  it  can 
prove  that  a  tariff  is  a  tax  ;  and  with  four  eyelids  shut  very 
tight,  it  can  tell  what  Western  Union  will  be  worth  two 
years  after  a  comet  strikes  the  earth. 

"Of  course,  the  Republican  party,  consisting  as  it  does  en 
tirely  of  fools,  has  relied  for  what  little  light  it  could  get  on 
financial  questions  upon  such  contemptuous  advice  as  the 
Times  would  spit  forth  at  it,  when  it  had  about  three  of  its 
eyelids  closed.  No  political  party  could  endure  the  efful 
gence  which  such  a  luminary  would  be  if  it  undertook  to 
tell  all  it  knows  with  its  vast  owl-brain,  and  to  reveal  all  it 
sees  with  its  wondrous  owl-eyes.  Hence  the  danger  is  that 
we  shall  soon  miss  the  croaking  of  the  New  York  Times, 
and  the  Democratic  party  will  get  a  new  owl.  For  when  it 
read,  through  its  four  sets  of  eyelashes,  the  tariff  platform 
of  the  present  Republican  party,  its  solemn  screech  was  dis 
mal.  It  terrified  even  the  frosty,  tesselated  branches  of  the 
icy  woods  around  it.  It  confessed  to  that  chill  which  is 
death's  premonition.  As  the  poet  remarks:  'The  owl, 
with  all  his  feathers,  was  a-cold.'  " 


208  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

In  Augusta,  Mr.  Elaine's  home,  the  reception  of  the  news 
of  Elaine's  nomination  was  marked  by  the  most  extraordinary 
enthusiasm.  All  day  long,  when  the  balloting  was  in  prog 
ress,  the  vicinity  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  office  was 
crowded  with  anxious  people.  The  crowds  grew  denser  am 
denser  as  the  news  of  successive  ballots  were  received 
When  the  joyful  tidings  came  one  grand  hurrah  burst  fortl 
from  the  grand  throng,  and  the  acclamations  which  arose 
found  one  prolonged  echo  from  one  limit  of  Water  street  tc 
the  other.  Hats  were  thrown  wildly  in  the  air,  and  wit! 
joyous  countenances  the  members  of  the  crowd  exchangee 
heartfelt  congratulations.  Men  became  wild  and  almosl 
frenzied. 

They  wrestled  with  each  other,  they  laughed  and  shoutec 
for  joy.  It  seemed  as  if  they  could  not  be  satisfied.  Il 
was  not  long  before  Water  street  was  well  nigh  impassable 
Carriages  blocked  up  the  way,  and  where  there  were  not  ve 
hicles  the  space  was  occupied  by  people.  At  4:40  o'clock 
and  less  than  five  minutes  after  the  news  came,  a  mammoti 
ilag  was  swinging  in  the  breeze,  As  the  banner  was  run  u\ 
it  was  greeted  with  stentorian  cheers.  Men  fairly  shoutec 
themselves  hoarse.  Next  they  went  up  the  street  to  when 
a  large  portrait  of  Mr.  Elaine  was  seen  hanging  out.  Hen 
they  broke  into  a  storm  of  cheers.  At  night  the  city  was 
no  less  excited  than  it  was  in  the  afternoon.  When  the  ^ 
o'clock  train  arrived  it  was  the  signal  for  renewed  cheering 
One  hundred  Gardiner  citizens  came  up,  and  a  large  partj 


Hiiiiiir 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  211 

from  Hallowell.  A  procession  formed  on  Commercial 
street,  and  moved  down  State  street  to  Mr,  Elaine's  resi 
dence.  The  houses  and  streets  along  the  route  were  illumi 
nated.  In  front  of  his  residence  the  procession  halted. 
"Three  cheers  for  the  next  President  of  the  United  States," 
shouted  the  spokesman  of  the  party.  A  storm  of  cheers 
followed.  In  response,  Mr.  Elaine  appeared  at  the  door 
way  and  surveyed  the  assembled  multitude  for  a  moment. 
All  demonstrations  was  quickly  hushed  and  Mr.  Elaine 
spoke  as  follows: 

My  friends  and  my  neighbors,  I  thank  you  most  earnestly 
for  the  honor  of  this  call.  There  is  no  spot  in  the  world 
where  good  news  comes  to  me  so  gratefully  as  here  at  my 
own  home ;  among  the  people  with  whom  I  have  been  on 
terms  of  friendship  and  intimacy  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
people  whom  I  know  and  who  know  me.  Thanking  you 
again  for  the  heartiness  of  the  compliment,  I  bid  you  good 
night. 

Mr.  Elaine  received  the  news  of  his  nomination  while 
swinging  in  a  hammock  between  two  apple  trees  on  the  large 
lawn  which  surrounds  his  house.  He  had  shown  great  un 
concern  in  the  convention  proceedings,  devoting  the  day  to 
amusements  with  his  family,  romping  with  the  children  and 
in  every  way  following  his  well-known  domestic  pastimes, 
for  Mr.  Elaine's  home  has  ever  been  the  abiding  place  of 
joyous  exhuberance  and  perfect  happiness. 

The  dispatch  announcing  his  nomination  was  followed  im 
mediately  by  a  confusion  of  whistles,  clanging  of  bells  and 
the  glad  shouts  of  overjoyed  people,  and  yet  there  was  no 
change  in  Mr.  Elaine's  appearance  as  he  received  the  con 
gratulations  of  friends.  Telegrams  came  rushing  in  on 
him,  almost  literally  by  arrnfuls.  Hundreds  of  dis 
patches  followed  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  from  every 


•2\->  LIFE  AND  I'UJLir  SERVICES  or 


State  in  the  Union.     The  following  are  a  few  of  the  most 
important: 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  June  6. 
Hon.  James  G.  Elaine: 

As  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party  you  will  have 
my  earnest  and  cordial  support.  CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR. 

To  which  Mr.  Blaine  replied  : 
Hon.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  President  of  the    United  States, 

Washington,  D.  C  .  : 
Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  cordial  assurance. 

JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  6,  1884. 
Hon.  James  G.  Blaine,  Augusta,  Me.: 

I  most  heartily  congratulate  you  on  your  nomination. 
You  will  be  elected.  Your  friend. 

JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 
To  Senator  Logan's  telegram  of  congratulation  Mr.  Blaine 

O  c?  O 

sent  the  following  reply  : 

I  am  proud  and  honored  in  being  associated  with  you  in 
the  national  campaign.  JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
Hon.  James  G.  Blaine: 

Accept  congratulations  and  cordial  support. 

JOSEPH  R.  HAWLEY. 

Among  others  sending  congratulatory  despatches  were 
Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes,  Ben  Harrison,  Murat  Halstead,  ex- 
Gov.  Cornell,  F.  Carroll  Brewster,  Ellis  H.  Roberts  and 
Edwin  Coles,  of  Cleveland. 

A  special  train  of  fifteen  cars  from  Portland,  Lewiston, 
and  other  cities  reached  the  city  in  the  evening,  and  a  few 
minutes  later  a  special  Bangor  train  arrived  with  thirteen 
cars,  and  carrying  more  than  a  thousand  persons.  The  visi 
tors  marched  to  the  residence  of  Mr.  Blaine,  who  received 
and  addressed  them  as  follows: 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  213 

GENTLEMEN:  lam  sure  I  must  regard  this  as  a  compli 
ment  totally  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  politics  in 
Maine.  I  do  not  dare  take  the  compliment  at  all  to  my 
self,  but  I  recognize  the  earnestness  with  which  you  are  pre 
pared  to  enter  the  pending  national  campaign,  and  I  have 
the  pleasure  to  announce  to  you  from  a  despatch  I  have  just 
received,  that  I  have  myself  the  honor  to  be  associated  on 
the  Republican  ticket,  with  that  bave  and  honorable  soldier, 
that  eminent  Senator  and  true  man,  John  A.  Logan,  of 
Illinois. 

[Tremendous  applause  and  cheers  three  times  for  Logan.] 
[A  voice.  "You  can't  beat  that  team."]  I  am  sure, 
gentlemen,  I  am  very  sorry  that  the  elements  are  not  as 
auspicious  as  they  might  have  been  for  your  visit.  [A  voice, 
"We  have  been  waiting  for  the  shower  eight  years,"]  and 
the  way  you  stand  it  is  a  good  proof.  I  can  add  nothing  by 
a  speech  to  that  fact,  and  you  would  hardly  expect  me  to 
do  more  on  this  occasion  than  to  express  to  you  the  very 
deep  obligations  I  feel  for  the  extraordinary  compliment 
you  have  paid  me  in  coming  from  your  homes  in  distant 
parts  of  the  State  on  the  announcement  of  the  action  of  the 
National  Convention.  I  wish  my  home  was  large  enough  to 
contain  you  all  as  my  heart  is.  [Cries  of  "Good!"  and 
cheers.] 


214  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Like  all  great  men,  Mr.  Elaine  has  his  enemies;  enemies 
full  of  spite  and  malignity  born  of  jealousy;  enemies  who, 
having  been  trodden  under  his  feet,  wriggle  in  their  distress 
and  are  ever  trying  to  reach  up  and  bite  him.  The  ambition 
of  men  and  parties  has  neither  compass  nor  direction ;  it  is 
an  unmeasured  greed,  resolving  for  an  attainment  that  is 
never,  and  can  never  be  reached;  such  ambition  is  like 
the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  ever  ready  to  ride  to  power  and 
preferment,  and  then  throttle  the  steed  by  which  it  was 
born.  Is  it  therefore  to  be  wondered  that  in  every  cam 
paign  there  should  be  such  crimination  and  recrimination, 
such  charges  of  corruption  as,  if  true,  would  set  the  ma 
chinery  of  courts  in  motion,  however  rich  and  influential  the 
parties  so  charged  might  be?  Can  we  lose  sight  of  tho 
plain  fact  that  each  nomination  is  made,  or  supposed  to  be 
made,  by  the  people  themselves  voicing  their  preferences 
through  their  duly  chosen  delegates?  Charges  of  corrup 
tion  made  against  nominees  so  chosen  are  therefore  a  re 
flection  upon  the  honor  and  honesty  of  a  majority  of  the 
people;  but  actuated  by  malice  and  political  license,  the 
common  vultures  of  ambition  advertise  a  feast  in  every 
campaign,  by  circling  around  the  festering  body  of  some 
charge  of  corruption  that  may  have  been  proved  only  a  pu 
trid  emanation  of  jealousy  hundreds  of  times. 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Hamilton  preached  a  sermon  at  Provi 
dence,  R.  I.,  on  June  8th,  which,  for  felicitous  adaptation  to 
the  masses  at  this  time,  is  worthy  of  much  thought  and  a 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  215 

wide  dissemination.  The  following  extract  has  immediate 
reference  to  the  present  campaign,  as  well  as  being  a  brief 
resume  of  the  slanders  that  have  been  hurled  at  all  our 
great  men,  who  aspired  to  the  Presidency,  from  Washing 
ton  down  the  century  to  the  present  time.  Said  he: 

"Defamation  of  character  is  a  popular  political  method. 
Arguments  give  way  to  invectives ;  discussion  of  principles 
is  superseded  by  vituperation  of  candidates.  An  illustrated 
journal  of  unsavory  notoriety  has  enriched  itself  and  amused 
its  vicious  readers  by  pilloring  upon  its  pictorial  page,  an 
eminent  citizen  as  the  tattooed  curiosity  of  a  dime  museum. 
Its  tattoo  marks  are  the  unproven  and  disproven  gossip  of 
the  gutter.  Instead  of  meeting  merited  denunciation,  its 
slander  is  quoted  as  the  hit  of  the  campaign.  It  will  doubt 
less  be  repeated  'ad  nauseam,'  until  the  bulletin  boards 
now  occupied  by  Jumbo  will  flame  with  the  popular  carica 
ture.  The  sad  believer  in  human  depravity  finds  his  best 
arguments  not  in  theological  lore,  but  in  the  political  cau 
cus,  convention  and  campaign  journal. 

"We  are  apt  to  imagine  because  we  cannot  escape  the  vile 
calumnies  of  every  recognized  political  leader,  that  we  are  liv 
ing  in  the  last  times;  that  all  men  are  liars  or  rascals.  We 
sigh  for  the  statesmen  of  the  past,  whose  love  of  country, 
brilliant  genius  and  mighty  achievements  won  for  them  the 
love  and  approval  of  their  fellow-citizens. »  A  glance  back 
ward  teaches  us  a  lesson  that  will  enable  us  to  look  upon  the 
'tattooed'  man  with  a  smile  of  satisfaction  that  it  is  no 
worse.  The  calumny  received  by  the  leaders  of  '84  is  but 
a  feeble  varioloid  compared  to  the  plague  endured  by  the 
fathers 

"One  name  is  revered  above  every  other  in  American 
history,  Washington,  the  illustrious  general  and  patriotic 
statesman.  He  must  have  hushed  the  reptile's  hiss  and 
escaped  its  fangs.  By  no  means;  no  man  living  or  dead 
was  ever  more  cruelly  maligned,  or  more  outrageously  de 
famed  than  he.  It  is  not  hard  to  believe  that  he  was  driven 
into  private  life  by  the  unscrupulous  abuse  of  a  hostile 


216  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

press.  All  his  immediate  successors  fared  the  same.  Jef 
ferson,  especially,  was  denounced  for  his  personal  vices  as 
well  as  his  public  corruption.  Andrew  Jackson,  the  hero 
of  New  Orleans,  to  many  an  ideal  statesman,  even  to-day, 
was  accused  of  nearly  every  vice  or  crime  in  the  catalogue 
of  wickedness.  General  Harrison  was  scurrilously  assailed 
as  'Grandma  Harrison,  a  gossiping  old  lady  and  imbecile.' 
From  Washington  to  Buchanan  no  leader  escaped.  1  need 
not  say  anything  about  Buchanan.  Many  who  hear  me  re 
member  how  he  was  assailed,  and  perhaps  joined  in  the 
assault.  A  laborious  effort  is  now  being  made  to  rescue  his 
memory  from  contempt  by  proving  him  to  be  neither  a 
snivelling  hypocrite,  nor  a  cowardly  knave.  One  name 
has  power  to  hush  to  silence  or  fire  with  enthusiasm  any 
American  assemblage  ;  and  yet  Abraham  Lincoln  was,  in 
the  eyes  of  his  detractors,  an  unscrupulous  demagogue  and 
fiendish  tyrant.  When  Horace  Greeley,  a  man  of  pure  life 
and  glorious  record,  plaintively  asked  a  friend,  'Am  I 
running  for  the  White  House  or  the  Penitentiary  ?'  it  was 
the  throb  of  a  broken  heart.  He  died  at  the  hand  of  the 
assassin  as  did  his  friend  Lincoln.  When  Garfield's  name 
was  written  upon  a  bulletin  board  in  a  city  in  Maine,  a 
gentleman  said,  'I  am  sorry  my  man  did  not  get  the  nom 
ination,  but  we  have  a  candidate  who  cannot  be  assailed.' 
With  the  announcement  of  the  nomination  went  out  charges 

O 

of  villainy  whict^  if  proven,  showed  him  to  be  one  whom  no 
honest  man  could  support.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  scan 
dal-monger,  we  would  not  have  had  the  assassin.  The 
charges  of  dishonor  and  corruption  uttered  by  gentlemen 
made  possible  the  crime  of  Guiteau.  Sumner  and  Phillips, 
two  of  New  England's  most  brilliant  and  worthy  sons, 
drank  to  the  dregs  the  cup  of  contumely  and  indecent  as 
sault.  When  the  form  of  each  lay  cold  in  death,  the  na 
tion  sought  to  wash  out  with  tears  the  'tattoo'  marks  of  the 

O 

vile  slanderers. 

"The  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  demand  that  somewhere  in 
American  political  life  the  place  shall  be  found  or  made  for 
decency  and  decorum.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  charged 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  217 

with  dying  from  a  softening  of  the  brain  and  a  hardening  of 
the  heart.  Have  we  not  a  right  to  demand  that  if  a  politi 
cal  campaign  warrants  the  average  gentleman  in  becoming 
a  foul-mouthed  blackguard,  that  discipleship  to  Jesus 
Christ,  to  say  the  least,  shall  involve  courtesy  and  good  breed 
ing?  Nothing  can  be  said  more  to  the  injury  of  Christian 
ity  than  that  its  adherents  are  uncrupulous  scandal-mongers 
concerning  their  rivals.  In  the  interest  of  public  virtue, 
let  us  demand  that  the  requirements  and  courtesies  of  decent 
society  shall  not  be  waived  or  ignored  by  professed  Chris 
tian  gentlemen  in  a  political  campaign.  Let  the  principles 
involved  and  the  claims  of  the  candidates  be  discussed  dis 
passionately  ;  let  defamation  of  character  and  ruffianly  black 
guardism  be  frowned  upon  by  the  better  element  of  our 
voters,  and  political  methods  would  be  revolutionized.  We 
will  then  see  our  best  citizens  engage  in  politics  unterrified 
by  the  mud-slinger ;  the  miasma  of  corruption  which  fills  the 
air  will  be  banished  and  we  will  enjoy  the  pure  atmosphere  of 
the  home.  Does  this  seem  incredible  or  impossible?  Apply 
the  principles  of  the  Gospel  to  political  life  as  we  do  to 
home  and  businesss  life,  and  the  impossible  is  achieved. 
God  forbids,  denounces  and  punishes  slander  as  any  other 
gross  sin.  Tattoo  the  scandal-monger ;  write  upon  his  name 
and  brow  'slander',  that  all  may  know  him,  distrust  and 
despise  him." 


218  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Much  as  the  fact  is  to  be  regretted,  that  men,  claiming  to 
be  honorable,  will  assist  in  circulating  slanders  which  are 
unproven,  and  which  are  known  to  have  their  origin  with 
enemies,  yet  it  is  none  the  less  imperative  for  the  cause  of 
justice,  to  meet  all  slanders,  however  contemptible,  and 
give  answers  so  strong  that  they  may  recoil  upon  those  who 
originated  them. 

O 

One  of  the  most  infamous  charges  ever  preferred  against 
Mr.  Blaine  was  by  a  fellow  named  James  Mulligan,  the 
confidential  clerk  of  Fisher  &  Co.,  with  whom  Mr. 
Blaine  had  had  some  business  transactions  of  a  ligitimate 
character.  This  relation  emboldened  Mulligan  to  make  a 
proposition  to  Mr.  Blaine  of  such  character  that  its  accept 
ance  would  have  been  an  impeachment  of  honor;  whereupon 
Mulligan  sought  to  intimidate  Mr.  Blaine  by  forswearing 
himself  ;  in  other  words,  he  attempted  to  coerce  Mr.  Blaine 
into  a  collusion  with  himself  for  corrupting  Congress,  and 
the  public  who  might  be  induced  to  make  investments  upon 
the  confidence  they  had  in  Mr.  Blaine. 

To  accomplish  his  purpose  as  explained,  Mulligan  went  be 
fore  a  committee  of  Congress  and  there  made  statement  to 
the  effect  that  Mr.  Blaine,  acting  as  the  broker  of  Warren 
Fisher,  Sr.,  a  contractor,  had  tried  to  sell  to  friends  in 
Maine  $520,000  worth  of  stocks  and  bonds  of  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  Company,  and  had  received 
for  that  service  about  $162,500  of  the  company's  bonds  as  a 
commission;  that  the  speculation  had  turned  out  badly  and 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  219 

Mr.  Elaine  was  compelled  to  take  back  part  of  the  securi 
ties.  Mulligan  had  added  to  this  story  the  statement 
that  Elisha  Atkins,  then  a  director  in  the  Union  Pacific 
Company,  had  told  him  that  Mr.  Elaine  had  sold  $75,000  of 
the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  bonds  to  Col.  Thos.  A. 
Scott,  and  that  Col.  Scott  had  made  the  Union  Pacific  Com 
pany  take  them  at  eighty  cents  on  the  dollar. 

When  pressed  for  proof  of  his  statements  Mulligan  had 
produced  a  number  of  letters  and  memoranda  and  declared 
that  they  would  prove  his  story.  At  a  subsequent  examina 
tion  Mulligan  told  how  Mr.  Elaine  had  visited  him  in 
the  Riggs  House  and  implored  him  for  the  sake  of  his  wife 
and  children  to  show  him  the  letters,  and  how  after  he  had 
gotten  them  he  refused  to  return  them. 

The  improbability  of  Mulligan's  story,  its  inconsistencies 
and  stupidity  did  not  deter  Mr.  Elaine's  enemies  from  rais 
ing  a  great  cry  filled  with  exaggeration  and  graceless  false 
hood;  so  annoying,  because  so  unfounded,  did  these  charges 
become  to  the  sensitive  nature  of  Mr.  Elaine,  that  he 
resolved  to  definitely  meet  them  publicly  and  honestly.  The 
charges  had  been  preferred  before  a  committee  of  Congress, 
and  Mr.  Elaine  therefore  very  properly  decided  to  answer 
them  before  the  Congress  assembled,  and  to  this  end  an 
nounced  that  on  June  5th,  1876,  he  would  produce  the 
letters  referred  to  by  Mulligan  and  explain  his  entire  con 
nection  with  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad. 

On  the  day  appointed,  th<  galleries  and  floor  of  the  House 
were  crowded  to  their  utmost  capacity.  Mr.  Elaine  obtained 
the  floor  on  a  question  of  privilege  and  defended  himself 
in  a  speech  of  such  direct  force  and  eloquence,  that  from 
every  part  of  the  House  he  was  greeted  with  thunders  of 
applause.  After  charging  that  the  committee's  inquiry  had 


220  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

been  turned  into  an  investigation  of  his  personal  affairs,  he 
drew  from  his  pocket  the  Mulligan  letters.  Holding  them 
up,  he  said  that  they  had  been  wrongfully  in  Mulligan's 
possession,  and  charged  that  the  committee,  in  trying  to  use 
them  against  him,  had  violated  the  personal  and  private 
rights  that  belonged  to  every  American  citizen. 

Then,  holding  the  package  high  enough  for  the  whole 
House  to  see  it,  he  said: 

"I  thank  God  Almighty  that  I  am  not  ashamed  to  show 
them.  Here  they  are.  There  is  the  very  original  package. 
With  some  sense  of  humiliation,  with  a  mortification  which 
I  do  not  pretend  to  conceal,  with  a  sense  of  outrage  which 
I  think  every  man  in  my  position  would  feel,  I  invite  the 
confidence  of  44,000,000  of  people,  and  I  will  read  these 
letters." 

As  he  finished  this  sentence  the  Republican  members, 
who  had  left  their  seats  and  stood  near  him,  clapped  their 
hands,  and  the  throng  in  the  galleries,  who  had  listened  with 
rapt  attention,  applauded  and  cheered. 

Mr.  Elaine  then  read  the  letters,  gave  his  explanation  of 
their  meaning,  and  declared  that  they  had  been  picked 
out  of  the  most  intimate  business  correspondence  of  his 
life.  Then  he  faced  his  Republican  colleagues,  and  said: 

"  I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  if  any  of  you  could  stand  a  closer 
scrutiny,  a  more  rigid  investigation  of  your  correspondence  ?" 

The  Republican  members  again  applauded,  and  cheers 
went  up  from  the  galleries.  Then  Mr.  Elaine  advanced 
from  the  aisle  and  accused  Proctor  Knott  of  suppressing  a 
despatch  from  Josiah  Caldvvell,  which  exonerated  him  from 
Mulligan's  charges.  He  concluded  this  remarkable  speech 
by  moving  that  the  committee  be  compelled  to  report 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE. 

whether  and  why  the  despatch   had  been   suppressed,  and 
then  took  his  seat  amid  the  applause  of  his  friends. 

The  country  seemed  to  be  satisfied  with  Mr.  Elaine's  ex 
planations,  but,  notwithstanding  this,  after  lying  in  the 
putrid  slough  of  falsehood  for  eight  years,  his  enemies  once 
more  revived  the  charges,  hoping  that  his  bold  and  manly 
course  before  the  House  had  been  forgotten.  Mr.  Blaine 
was  a  candidate  for  President  again,  and  to  defeat  his  aspi 
rations  the  New  York  Post  (or,  rather,  Carl  Schurz)  re 
newed  its  hostility  towards  him  by  reprinting,  in  the  most 
nauseous  and  indefensible  form,  with  additions  and  exag 
gerations  equally  unwarranted,  the  damnable  lie  assertive 
of  his  corrupt  connection  with  the  Little  Rock  &  Fort 
Smith  Railroad,  as  well,  also,  as  other  charges  no  less  ground 
less. 

To  this  attack  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  respond  at  once,  because 
Hon.  William  Walter  Phelps,  a  member  of  the  present 
Congress,  and  a  gentleman  of  long  and  intimate  acquain 
tanceship  with  Mr.  Blaine,  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the 
facts,  himself  preferred  to  answer  the  charges,  which  he  did 
in  a  masterly  manner  in  the  following  communication,  pub 
lished  in  the  New  York  Post  of  April  25th: 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Evening  Post: 

SIR: — On  the  7th  inst.  you  made  formal  charges  against 
James  G.  Blaine.  They  are  the  same  which  were  made 
eight  years  ago,  and  which  were,  I  think,  at  that  time  satis 
factorily  answered.  Lest  others,  however,  may,  like  your 
self,  have  forgotten  everything  except  the  assault,  you  must 
permit  me  to  remind  you  of  the  defense.  I  think  I  may 
claim  some  qualifications  for  the  task.  I  have  long  had  a 
close  personal  intimacy  with  Mr.  Blaine,  and  during  many 
years  have  had  that  knowledge  and  care  of  his  moneyed  in 
terests  which  men  absorbed  in  public  affairs  are  not  inapt 


222  LIFE   AXD    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

to  devolve  upon  friends  who  have  had  financial  training  and 
experience.  I  do  not  see  how  one  man  could  know  another 
better  than  I  know  him,  and  he  to-day  has  my  full  confi 
dence  and  warm  regard.  I  am  myself  somewhat  known  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  and  think  I  have  some  personal  rank 
with  you  and  your  readers.  Am  I  claiming  too  much  in 
believing  that  there  is  not  one  among  you  who  would  regard 
me  as  capable  of  an  attempt  to  mislead  the  public  in  any 
way?  With  this  personal  allusion,  pardonable,  if  not  de 
manded  under  the  circumstances,  I  proceed  to  consider  your 
charges. 

The  first  charge  is  really  the  one  upon  which  all  the 
others  hinge.  I  give  it  in  full,  and  in  your  own  language, 
only  italicizing  some  of  your  words,  in  order  that  my  an 
swer  may  be  the  clearer: 

« '  The  first  of  these  charges  is  that  in  the  spring  session  of 
Congress,  in  1869,  a  bill  was  before  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  which  sought  to  renew  a  land  grant  to  the  Little 
Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Railroad,  of  Arkansas,  in  which  some  of 
Mi\  Blame's  friends  were  interested;  that  an  attempt  to 
defeat  it  by  an  amendment  was  made,  and  its  promoters 
were  in  despair ;  that  at  this  juncture  Mr.  Blaine,  being 
then  Speaker  of  the  House,  sent  a  message  to  Gen.  Logan 
to  make  the  point  of  order  that  the  amendment  was  not  ger 
mane  to  the  purposes  of  the  bill ;  that  this  point  of  order 
was  accordingly  raised  and  promptly  sustained  by  Mr.  Blaine 
as  Speaker,  and  the  bill  was  in  this  manner  saved;  thai 
Mr.  Blaine  wrote  at  once  to  the  promoters,  calling  attention, 
to  the  service  he  had  rendered  them,  and  finally,  after  some 
negotiations,  secured  from  them,  as  a  reward  for  it,  his  :ip- 
pointment  as  selling  agent  of  the  bonds  of  the  road  on  com 
mission  in  Maine,  and  received  a  number  of  such  bonds  as 
\\\<  percentage  ;  that  the  leading  features  of  this  transaction 
appeared  in  two  letters  of  his,  afterwards  made  public, 
dated  respectively  June  29,  and  October  4,  1869." 

Your  error  is  in  the  facts.  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  were  not 
connected  with  the  Fort  Smith  &  Little  Rock  Road  at  the 
time  of  the  passage  of  this  bill.  Those  to  whom  you  refer 


JAMES   G.    ELAINE.  223 

as  his  friends  were  Caldwell  and  Fisher.  The  bill  passed 
in  April,  1869.  In  April,  1869,  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  know 
that  there  was  any  such  man  as  Caldwell,  and  Fisher,  who 
was  Mr.  Elaine's  friend,  did  not  know  that  there  was  any 
such  enterprise  as  the  Little  Rock  Railroad  in  the  world. 
The  evidence  of  these  assertions  was  before  Congress,  was 
uncontradicted,  and  is  within  your  reach.  On  the  29th  of 
June,  nearly  eighty  days  after  Congress  had  adjourned, 
Mr.  Elaine,  from  his  home  in  Maine,  wrote  to  Fisher,  and 
spoke  of  Fisher's  "  offer  to  admit  him  to  a  share  in  the  new 
railroad  enterprise."  Fisher  had  introduced  the  subject  to 
Mr.  Elaine,  for  the  first  time,  a  week  before,  at  the  great 
musical  festival  in  Boston.  He  told  him  there  that  Mr. 
Caldwell,  whom  Mr.  Elaine  had  not  yet  seen,  had  now  ob 
tained  control  of  the  enterprise,  and  had  invited  Fisher  to 
join  him.  At  that  time  Fisher  was  a  sugar-refiner  of  con 
siderable  wealth  in  Boston,  had  been  a  partner  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
brother-in-law,  and  through  him  had  made  Mr.  Elaine's  ac 
quaintance.  The  offer  Mr.  Elaine  refers  to  in  his  letter 
was  Fisher's  offer  to  induce  Caldwell,  if  he  could,  to  let 
Mr.  Elaine  have  a  share  in  the  bed-rock  of  the  enterprise. 
Mr.  Fisher  failed  to  do  this,  and  Mr.  Elaine  never  secured 
any  interest  in  the  building  of  the  Fort  Smith  &  Little 
Rock  Railroad. 

What  interest,  then,  did  Mr.  Elaine  secure?  An  interest 
in  the  securities  of  the  company.  How?  By  purchase,  on 
the  same  terms  as  they  were  sold  on  the  Boston  market  to 
all  applicants,  to  Josiah  Bordwell,  to  Elisha  Atkins,  and  to 
other  reputable  merchants.  He  negotiated  for  a  block  of 
the  securities,  which  were  divided,  as  is  usual  in  such  enter 
prises,  into  three  kinds,  first  mortgage  bonds,  second  mort 
gage  bonds  and  stock.  The  price,  I  think,  was  three  for 
one.  That  is,  the  purchaser  got  first  mortgage  bonds  for 
his  money  and  an  equal  amount  of  second  mortgage  bonds 
and  of  stock  thrown  in  as  the  basis  of  possible  profit.  I 
may  be  mistaken  as  to  the  price,  but  I  think  not.  I  went 
myself  at  this  time  into  several  adventures  of  the  kind  at 
that  rate,  and  have  always  understood  that  Senator  Grimes 


224  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 

and  his  friends  got  their  interests  in  the  Burlington  &  Mis 
souri  Road,  afterward  the  Union  Pacific,  on  the  same  three- 
to-one  basis.  It  was  the  common  rule  in  that  era  of  specu 
lation.  Having  made  his  purchase,  Mr.  Blaine  conceived 
the  idea  that  he  might  retain  his  second  mortgage  bonds  as 
profit,  and  sell  the  first  mortgage  bonds  with  the  stock  as  a 
bonus  to  attract  purchasers.  He  believed  the  first  mortgage 
bonds  were  good,  and  disposed  of  them  to  his  neighbors  in 
that  faith,  and  with  the  determination  to  shield  them  from 
loss  in  case  of  disaster.  Disaster  came.  The  bonds  proved 
worthless,  and  Mr.  Blaine  redeemed  them  all.  In  one  or 
two  cases  only  was  there  any  guarantee.  In  none  other  was 
there  any  legal  obligation,  but  he  recognized  a  moral  claim, 
and  he  obeyed  it  to  his  own  pecuniary  loss.  *  I  can  not  but 
feel  that  the  purchasers  of  these  bonds  would  have  fared 
worse  had  they  to  look  to  many  of  those  who  have  sought 
to  give  an  odious  interpretation  to  Mr.  Blainc's  honorable 
conduct.  The  arrangement  for  the  purchase  of  the  block 
of  securities  was  made  in  June.  The  sales  of  the  first  mort 
gage  bonds  out  of  the  block  were  continued  through  the 
months  of  July,  August  and  September,  1869.  So  the 
transaction  was  closed  when,  in  the  letter  of  October  4,  Mr. 
Blaine  wrote  to  Fisher,  and  told  him  the  story  of  the  9th  of 
April.  Mr.  Blaine  had  come  across  it,  while  looking  over 
the  Globe,  with  a  natural  curiosity  to  see  what  had  been  his 
decisions  during  the  first  six  weeks  of  his  Speakership,  and 
wrote  of  it  to  Fisher  as  an  item  in  the  legislative  history  of 
the  enterprise  into  which  they  had  both  subsequently  en 
tered.  It  concerned  a  bill  to  renew  a  land  grant,  made  long 
before  the  war,  to  the  Little  Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Railroad. 
The  bill  had  passed  the  Senate  without  opposition,  and  there 
was  no  one  objecting  to  it  in  the  House.  But  the  advocates 
of  the  Memphis,  El  Paso  &  Pacific  Railway  bill  sought  to 
attach  their  bill  to  it  as  an  amendment.  This  El  Paso 
scheme  was  known  at  the  time  as  General  Fremont's  scheme, 
and  had  been  urged  upon  Congress  before.  It  was  gener 
ally  unpopular,  and  was  hotly  opposed  by  General  Logan. 
Wedded  to  the  Little  Rock  bill  it  would  gain  strength,  but 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  225 

the  Little  Rock  bill  would  lose  by  it,  and  a  just  measure,  uni 
versally  approved,  would  be  killed  in  its  effort  to  pull 
through  with  it  this  unjust  measure,  universally  disapproved. 

Mr.  Elaine's  letter  to  Fisher  will  tell  the  rest  of  the  story. 
He  wrote:  "  In  this  dilemma  Roots,  the  Arkansas  member, 
came  to  me  to  know  what  on  earth  he  could  do  under  the 
rules,  for  he  said  it  was  vital  to  his  constituents  that  the  bill 
should  pass.  I  told  him  that  the  amendment  was  entirely 
out  of  order,  because  not  germane,  but  he  had  not  sufficient 
confidence  in  his  knowledge  of  the  rules  to  make  the  point. 
But  he  said  that  General  Logan  was  opposed  to  the  Fremont 
scheme  arid  would  probably  make  the  point.  I  sent  my  page 
to  General  Logan  with  the  suggestion,  and  he  at  once  made 
the  point.  I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  sustain  it,  and 
so  the  bill  was  freed  from  the  mischievous  amendment,  and 
at  once  passed  without  objection."  Mr.  Elaine  added  these 
significant  words:  "At  that  time  1  had  never  seen  Mr. 
Oaldwdl,  but  you  can  tell  him  that  without  knowing  him,  I 
did  him  a  great  favor.  .  .  .  I  thought  the  point  would 
interest  both  you  and  Mr.  Caldwell,  though  before  either  of 
you  were  engaged  in  the  enterprise." 

This  seems,  Mr.  Editor,  to  dispose  of  your  first  charge. 
The  bill  was  a  just  one,  and  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  had  no  in 
terest  in  it  when  it  passed  the  House.  Eighty  days  after  the 
House  adjourned,  Mr.  Elaine  asked  his  friends,  who  had 
in  the  meantime  gotten  hold  of  the  enterprise,  and  had 
offered  him  some  interest,  to  let  him  in  as  a  partner.  They 
refused.  They  did,  however,  sell  him  a  block  of  securities 
on  the  same  terms  they  sold  them  to  others,  and  it  proved 
an  unfortunate  purchase,  for  he  sold  them  out  among  his 
friends,  believing  them  valuable,  and  took  them  all  back 
when  he  found  that  they  were  worthless.  The  letter  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  written  months  after,  contains  his  vindication,  and  so 
clearly,  that  Judge  Black,  after  an  investigation  of  the 
whole  subject,  declared  in  his  characteristic  style  that  Mr. 
Elaine's  letters  proved  that  the  charge  which  you  repeat 
against  him,  "was  not  only  untrue,  but  impossible,  and 
would  continue  so  to  prove  until  the  Gregorian  Calender 


226  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

could  be  turned  around,  and  October  made  to  precede  April 
in  the  stately  procession  of  the  years." 

Your  second  charge  consists  of  two  parts.  The  first  part 
is,  that  Mr.  Elaine  wrongfully  asserted  that  "The  Little 
Rock  &  Fort  Smith  Road  derives  its  life  and  value  and 
franchise  wholly  from  the  State  of  Arkansas,"  whereas  the 
evidence  subsequently  taken,  discloses  the  fact  that  the  road 
"derived  the  value  on  which  these  bonds  were  based  from 
the  Act  of  Congress,  of  which  Mr.  Elaine  secured  the  pas 
sage."  It  will  be  found  that  you  have  inaccurately  quoted 
Mr.  Elaine's  language,  or  rather,  that  you  have  put  lan 
guage  into  his  mouth  which  he  never  used.  What  Mr. 
Elaine  did  say  was:  "The  railroad  company  derived  its 
life,  value  and  franchises  from  the  State  of  Arkansas." 
And  Mr.  Elaine  stated  the  precise  truth.  What  are  the 
facts?  More  than  thirty  years  ago,  Congress  granted  to  the 
States  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas  a  certain  quantity  of  pub 
lic  lands  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  certain  lines  of  rail 
way.  The  franchises  that  should  be  granted  to  the  com 
panies  that  should  build  the  road,  were  expressly  left  by 
Congress  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  States.  Mr.  Elaine 
spoke,  therefore,  with  absolute  precision  of  language,  as  he 
usually  does,  when  he  stated  that  "the  Little  Rock  Com 
pany  derived  its  life,  value  and  franchises  wholly  from  the 
State  of  Arkansas" — just  as  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad 
Company  derives  its  life,  value  and  franchises  from  the 
State  of  Illinois,  though  enriched  by  a  land  grant  from  the 
United  States,  just  as  the  Little  Rock  road  was. 

The  second  part  of  your  second  charge  is  that  Mr.  Elaine 
did  not  speak  truthfully  when  he  asserted  that  he  "  bought 
the  bonds  at  precisely  the  same  rates  as  others  paid."  There 
is  no  evidence  anywhere  to  sustain  this  accusation.  I  have 
already  said  any  person  could  negotiate  for  them  on  the  one- 
for-three  basis,  just  as  Mr.  Elaine  did,  and  many  availed 
themselves  of  the  opportunity.  The  price  paid  was  not  in 
the  least  affected  by  the  fact  that  Mr.  Elaine  had  already 
arranged  to  sell  some  of  the  securities  afterward  at  a  higher 
price  than  he  paid  for  them.  He  did  this  with  the  deter- 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  227 

ruination,  honorably  maintained,  that  he  would  make  good 
any  loss  which  might  accrue.  These  sales  did  not  change 
the  price  to  Fisher,  and  the  proof  that  it  did  not,  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  Mr.  Elaine  paid  it  to  him  in  full.  You 
speak  in  connection  with  this  of  Mr.  Elaine's  being  ap 
pointed  an  agent  to  sell  the  bonds  of  the  company.  No 
such  appointment  was  ever  made,  and  no  evidence  suggested 
it.  Mr.  Elaine  bought  his  securities  at  a  given  price  and 
paid  it  for  them. 

Your  third  formal  charge  relates  to  an  alleged  connection 
of  Mr.  Elaine  with  a  share  in  the  Northern  Pacific  enter 
prise.  You  charge  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  in  Mr. 
Blame's  letter  in  which  you  find  the  subject  referred  to  was 
his  distinct  asseveration  that  he  "could  not  himself  touch 
the  share."  Have  you  seen  any  evidence  that  he  did?  I 
have  not.  The  Northern  Pacific  Eailroad  Company  has  been  or 
ganized  and  re-organized,  and  recently  re-organized  a  second 
time.  Its  records  of  ownership  and  interest  have  passed 
under  the  official  inspection  of  at  least  a  hundred  men,  many 
of  whom  are  political  enemies  and  some  of  them  are  to  my 
knowledge  personal  enemies  of  Mr.  Elaine,  and  there  has 
never  been  a  suggestion  or  hint  from  any  of  these  that  in 
any  form  whatever  Mr.  Elaine  had  the  remotest  personal 
interest  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Company.  If  one  of  your 
associates  has  such  evidence  it  is  right  that  he  should  pro- 

1  'A 

auce  it. 

Your  fourth  charge  is  that  after  Mr.  Elaine  got  posses 
sion  of  the  so-called  Mulligan  letters  "he  subsequently  read 
such  of  them  as  he  pleased  to  the  House  in  aid  of  his  vindi 
cation."  The  answer  is  that  Mulligan's  memorandum  of 
the  letters  in  which  he  had  numbered  and  indexed  each  one 
of  them  was  produced  and  number  and  index  corresponded 
exactly  with  the  letters  read.  This  was  fully  demonstrated 
on  the  floor  of  the  House  and  is  a  part  of  its  records. 

You  repeat  the  charge  that  Mr.  Elaine  received  a  certain 
sum  from  the  Union  Pacific  Kailroad  Company  for  seventy- 
five  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  road.  You  say  this  without  a 
particle  of  proof.  You  say  it  against  the  sworn  denial  of 


228  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Thomas  A.  Scott,  who  was  the  party  alleged   to  have  mad 
the  negotiation.     You  say  it  against  the  written  denial  o 
Mr.  Sidney  Dillon,  President  of  the  company ;   against  th< 
written  denial  of  E.  H.  Rollins,  Treasurer  of  the  company 
against  the  written  denial  of  Morton,  Bliss  &  Co.,  througl 
whose  banking  house  the  transaction  was  alleged  to   hav< 
been  made.     Against  this  mountain  of  direct  and  positive 
testimony  from  every  one  who  could  by  any  possibility  have 
personal  knowledge  of  the  alleged  transaction,  you  oppose 
nothing  but  hearsay  and  suspicion  as  the  ground  of  a  serious 
charge  against  the  character  of  a  man  long  eminent  in  pub 
lic   life.     The  courtesy  which  admits  me  to  your  columns 
prevents  my  saying  what  I  think  of  your  recklessness  in  this 
matter. 

Your  fifth  charge  arraigns  Mr.  Elaine's  policy  as  an  exec 
utive  officer,  and  your  last  charge  is  that  of  packing  con 
ventions  in  his  favor.  I  do  not  desire  to  dwell  upon  either. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  review  his  foreign  policy  to  which 
you  refer,  and  I  am  content  to  remark  that  however  much 
some  Eastern  journals  may  criticise,  it  is  popular  with  a 
large  majority  of  the  American  people.  It  is  simply  an 
American  policy,  looking  to  the  extention  of  our  commerce 
among  the  nations  of  this  continent,  and  refraining  from 
European  complications.  The  charge  of  packing  conventions 
needs  no  answer.  This  is  the  third  Presidential  campaign 
in  which  Mr.  Elaine  has  been  undeniably  the  choice  of  a 
large  proportion  of  the  Republican  party.  In  each  of  them 
he  has  had  the  active  opposition  of  the  National  Administra 
tion  with  the  use  of  its  patronage  against  him.  He  has  con 
trol  of  no  patronage.  He  has  no  machine.  Machine  and 
patronage  have  been  steadily  against  him.  Whatever  prom 
inence  he  has  enjoyed  has  been  conferred  by  the  people, 
He  has  no  means  not  open  to  every  citizen  of  influencing 
public  opinion.  No  campaign  in  his  favor  originated  else 
where  than  among  the  people.  He  has  never  sought  office, 
He  never  held  a  position  to  which  he  was  not  nominated  b\ 
the  unanimous  voice  of  his  party.  He  has  not  sought  the 
Presidency.  Circumstances  made  him  a  candidate  in  1876, 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  229 

almost  before  he  was  aware  of  it.  In  1880  he  did  not  wish 
to  enter  the  canvass.  I  was  one  of  a  small  party  of  friends 
who  in  a  long  conversation  in  February,  1880,  persuaded 
him  that  it  was  his  duty.  He  has  done  nothing  to  make 
himself  a  candidate  this  year.  He  has  asked  no  man's  sup 
port.  He  has  written  no  letters,  held  no  conversation, 
taken  no  steps  looking  to  his  candidacy.  He  has  never 
said  to  his  most  intimate  friends  that  he  expected  or  wanted 
the  nomination. 

If,  upon  a  review  of  the  whole  case,  you  should  charge 
that  it  would  have  been  better  and  wiser  for  Mr.  Elaine  to 
have  refrained  from  making  any  investment  in  a  railroad 
that  had  directly  or  indirectly  received  aid  from  the  legis 
lation  of  Congress,  I  should  be  ready  to  agree  with  you, 
not  because  the  thing  was  necessarily  wrong  in  itself, 
but  because  it  is  easy  for  such  matters  to  be  so  represented 
as  to  appear  wrong.  But  why  should  Mr.  Blaine  be  se 
lected  for  special  reprobation  and  criticism,  when  so  many 
other  Senators  and  Representatives  have  been  similarly  sit 
uated?  I  know  of  my  own  knowledge  that  Governor  Mor 
gan,  Mr.  Hooper,  Senator  Grimes  and  many  of  my  friends 
while  in  Congress  acquired  and  held  interests  in  such  enter 
prises,  and  neither  you  nor  I  nor  the  people  suspected  the 
transaction  to  be  wrong  or  that  it  gave  them  an  advantage 
over  other  investors.  Why  entertain  and  publish  that  sus 
picion  against  Mr.  Blaine  alone?  When  I  sat  as  a  delegate 
at-large  in  the  last  National  Convention,  Senator  Edmunds 
and  Senator  Winclom  were  both  candidates,  and  I  should 
gladly  have  supported  either.  Senator  Edmunds  was  un 
derstood  to  have  a  block  of  Burlington  and  Missouri  securi 
ties,  and  the  other  had  not  only  a  block  in  the  securities  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  but  was  one  of  its  Directors. 
Yet  you  find  no  fault  with  these  gentlemen.  Nor  would 
you  and  I  differ  in  giving  the  highest  rank  to  Senator 
Grimes,  but  both  he  and  Senator  Edmunds  acquired  their 
interests  in  the  Burlington  and  Missouri  road  while  they 
were  in  the  Senate.  They  both  certainly  supported  the  bill  to 
restore  the  land  grant  to  their  road  passed  on  the  same  day 


230  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

with  the  Little  Rock  bill.  Both  measurers  were  just,  and  both 
were  passed  in  the  Senate  and  House  without  a  dissenting 
vote.  Why  must  we  suspect  that  Mr.  Blainc  had  a  secret 
and  corrupt  motive,  and  that  other  members  and  Senators 
had  none? 

Let  me  add  a  circumstance  which  seems  to  me  to  be  sig 
nificant  of  Mr.  Baline's  conscious  innocence  in  this  Fort 
Smith  transaction.  He  voluntarily  made  himself  a  party 
of  record  in  a  suit  against  the  Fort  Smith  and  Little  Rock 
Railway  Company  in  the  U.  S.  Court  which  involved  the 
nature  and  source  or  his  ownership  in  the  property.  If  he 
had  obtained  this  ownership  dishonorably,  would  he  have 
courted  this  publicity? 

I  have  thus  ventured,  Mr.  Editor,  to  make  answer  to  the 
charges  you  have  brought  against  Mr.  Blaine.  There  arc 
other  charges  equally  baseless  which  I  have  read,  but  in 
other  papers,  so  that  I  may  not  claim  your  space  to  deny  or 
answer  them.  I  give  two  examples,  Mr.  Blaine  is  repre 
sented  as  the  possessor  of  millions,  while  I  know  that  he 
was  never  the  possessor  of  the  half  of  one  million.  He  was 
represented  as  living  for  the  past  ten  years  in  palatial 
grandeur  in  Washington.  He  sold  that  palatial  mansion 
with  all  its  furniture  to  Mr.  Travers  for  $24,000,  and  got 
all  that  it  was  worth.  But  you  are  responsible  for  such 
charges  as  you  have  made,  and  I  have  therefore  made  an 
swer  to  them  authoritatively  over  my  own  name,  and  I  chal 
lenge  a  denial  of  any  substantial  fact  I  have  stated.  Your 
attacks  are  not  on  Mr.  Blaine  alone,  they  are  on  his  friends 
as  well,  and  these  are  certainly  a  larger  and  more  devoted 
body  of  supporters  than  can  be  claimed  by  any  other  man 
in  public  life.  It  seems  to  me,  as  I  recall  those  in  every 
station  who  are  proud  to  be  numbered  among  them,  that  I 
recognize  many  of  the  ablest,  trust  and  most  honorable  of 
our  countrymen. 

I  am  respectfully  yours, 

WM.  WALTER  PIIELPS. 


JAMES  G.  BLAINK  231 

Mr.  E.  P.  Brooks  writes  in  the  Peoria   Call  of  the  Mul 
ligan  letter  episode  as  follows: 

"I  witnessed  the  scene  in  the  House  when  Blaine  read 
the  much-talked-of  Mulligan  letters.  Recalling  all  the  in 
cidents  and  facts  connected  with  that  historic  affair,  I  won 
der  now  at  the  short-sightedness  of  his  foes  in  making  so 
much  fuss  and  laying  so  much  stress  upon  those  harmless 
epistles.  The  truth  is,  the  way  Mr.  Blaine  handled  them 
proved  his  ability  to  hoist  his  calumniators  with  their  own 
[retards,  and  also  proved  his  innocence  of  the  charges  that 
lad  been  based  on  them.  For  days  and  weeks,  if  not 
months,  before  the  bursting  of  this  part  of  the  mud-slinging 
conspiracy  against  him  there  were  printed  in  the  opposition 
press  broadcast  all  over  the  country  all  sort  of  misterious 
lints,  broad  innuendoes  and  imposing  threats  of  fright 
ful  disclosures  to  be  made  when  Mulligan  should  be  heard 
from.  The  mind  of  the  newspaper-reading  public  had  been 
educated,  carefully  and  shrewdly  tutored  up  to  the  expec 
tation  of  the  final  development  of  crushing  evidence — tes 
timony  that  would  utterly  overwhelm  him.  And  Mulligan 
came  to  Washington,  taking  quarters  at  the  Riggs  House, 
heralded  as  the  man  who  would  open  the  gates  of  disgrace 
and  oblivion  to  the  foremost  Republican  of  his  period,  as 
the  man  who  would  'brand  Blaine'  with  the  indellible  stigma 
of  official  corruption,  and  consign  him  to  eternal  ruin. 
There  were  a  few  Republicans  who  tremblingly  feared  the 
result,  and  some,  too,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  who  were  engaged 
in  aiding  Mr.  Proctor  Knott  in  his  endeavors  to  overwhelm 
the  ablest  opponent  the  Confederate  Brigadiers  had  met 
upon  their  return  to  the  national  capital.  But  Mr.  Blaine 
was  on  the  alert.  Mr.  Mulligan  had  no  sooner  arrived  in 
Washington  than  he  received  a  visit  from  his  expected 
victim.  What  passed  between  them  no  one  save  themselves 
can  tell.  But  Mulligan  subsequently  declared  he  had  never 
before  met  a  man  such  as  his  visitor  of  that  evening  proved 
to  be,  a  man  who  *  plucked  the  flower  of  safety  from  the 
nettle  of  danger,'  or,  more  properly,  one  who  wrested  from 


232  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    Of 

his  most  wicked  persecutors  and  desperate  maligners  the 
proofs  of  his  innocence.  Mr.  Elaine  got  possession  of  the 
letters.  Boldly,  as  bravely  as  only  an  innocent  and  greatly 
injured  man  could  be,  he  gave  them  with  his  own  tongue 
and  hand  to  the  world.  'There  they  are,'  said  he  in  sub 
stance;  '  there  they  are,  the  proofs  of  my  guilt  that  you've 
been  waiting  for;  and  now  make  the  most  of  them.  I  give 
them  to  you,  one  and  all,  exactly  as  they  came  from  the 
hands  of  your  own  witness.'  This  dramatic  episode  has 
been  stupidly  described  as  a  bold  stroke,  and  as  an  auda 
cious  counter-movement  against  his  enemies.  But  it  was 
nothing  of  the  kind.  There  was  nothing  in  it  to  be  charac 
terized  as  the  superhuman  effort  of  a  daring  man  cornered 
and  fighting  against  fate.  Rather  it  was  the  demonstration 
of  eternal  justice,  the  vindication  of  eternal  truth,  and  the 
assertion  indisputable  of  the  innocence  of  the  intended  vic 
tim  of  Bourbon  hatred  and  malice.  The  effect  was  elec 
tric  beyond  conception.  Blaine's  friends  were  astounded, 
as  his  enemies  were  abashed,  at  his  temerity.  But  they 
soon  discovered  there  was  no  rash  contempt  of  danger  in 
his  proceedings.  They  found  there  was  no  danger  for  him 
to  fear  in  this  culminating  assault  upon  his  character.  Thou 
came  the  anti-climax.  'Oh,'  cried  his  defamers,  'how  do 
we  know  these  are  all  the  proofs?'  'By  the  words  from 
Mulligan's  own  mouth,'  was  the  response,  'by  the  memo 
randa  your  own  witness  had  made  of  the  letters  and  their 
contents.'  This,  in  brief,  is  the  history,  the  true  tale  of 
the  Mulligan  episode.  Let  the  opposition  make  the  most 
they  can  of  it.  But  in  the  mind  of  the  average  citizen  it 
resides  of  record  only  alongside  of  the  infamous  Morey  let 
ter  forgery.  Mulligan  and  Morey — that's  the  slogan  of  the 
hour." 


JAMES    G.    IJLAINE.  233 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

In  pursuance  of  the  time-honored  custom,  inaugurated  in 
the  Convention  of  1832,  the  committee  appointed  by  the 
National  Convention  of  1884,  to  notify  Hon.  Jas.  G.  Elaine 
of  his  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  met  in  Augusta,  on 
the  21st  of  June,  and  proceeded  to  a  performance  of  their 
pleasant  duties.  The  city  was  filled  with  people  in  antici 
pation  of  the  event,  and  nearly  all  the  buildings  were  appro 
priately  draped  with  national  bunting,  in  honor  of  the  dis 
tinguished  townsman  who  was  to  receive  the  highest  award 
that  his  party  could  bestow. 

At  11  o'clock  the  committee  proceeded  in  a  body  to  Mr. 
Elaine's  residence,  where  they  were  graciously  received  by 
Mrs.  Elaine.  The  day  was  too  oppressively  warm  for  com 
fort  within  doors,  and  upon  suggestion  the  committee  re 
paired  to  a  shaded  spot  on  the  ample  lawn,  under  large 
spreading  branches  of  stately  elm  and  oak  trees,  and  form 
ing  a  semi-circle,  stood,  with  uncovered  heads,  awaiting  the 
presence  of  Mr.  Elaine.  After  a  very  brief  interval  the  great 
statesman  appeared  and  took  his  position  at  the  center, 
facing  the  committee,  and  accompanied  by  his  wife  and 
children.  Gen.  John  B.  Henderson  then  stepped  forward 
a  pace  from  the  semi-circle  and  addressed  Mr.  Elaine  as 
follows: 

MR.  ELAINE — Your  nomination  for  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States  by  the  National  Convention  recently 
assembled  at  Chicago,  is  already  known  to  you.  The  gentle 
men  before  you,  constituting  the  committee,  composed  of 
one  member  from  each  State  and  Territory  of  the  country % 


234  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

and  one  from  the'  District  of  Columbia,  now  come  as  th< 
accredited  organ  of  i;hat  Convention  to  give  you  forma 
notice  of  the  nomination  and  to  request  your  acceptance 
thereof. 

It  is  of  course  known  to  you  that  beside  your  own,  severa 
names,  among  the  most  honored  in  the  councils  of  the  Re- 
publican  party,  were  presented  by  their  friends  as  candi 
dates  for  this  promotion.  Between  your  friends  and  tin 
friends  of  the  gentlemen  so  justly  entitled  to  the  respect  anc 
confidence  of  their  political  associates,  the  contest  was  one 
of  generous  rivalry,  free  from  any  taint  of  bitterness,  anc 
equally  free  from  the  reproach  of  injustice. 

At  an  early  stage  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention  il 
became  manifest  that  the  Republican  States,  whose  aid  musl 
be  invoked  at  the  last  to  insure  success  to  the  ticket,  earn 
estly  desired  your  nomination.  It  was  equally  manifest  thai 
the  desire  so  earnestly  expressed  by  the  delegates  from  these 
States  was  but  a  truthful  reflection  of  the  irresistible  populai 
demand.  It  is  not  thought  nor  pretended  that  this  demand 
had  its  origin  in  any  ambitious  desires  of  your  own  or  in  the 
organized  work  of  your  friends,  but  it  was  recognized  to  be 
what  it  truthfully  is — a  spontaneous  expression  by  the  peo 
ple  of  love  and  admiration  for  their  chosen  leader, 

No  nomination  would  have  given  satisfaction  to  all  the 
members  of  the  party.  This  was  not  to  be  expected  in  a 
country  so  extended  in  area  and  so  varied  in  interests.  The 
nomination  of  Lincoln  in  1860  disappointed  so  many  hopes 
and  overthrew  so  many  cherished  ambitions J;hat  for  a  short 
time  the  disaffection  threatened  to  ripen  into  open  revolt. 
In  1872  the  discontent  was  so  pronounced  as  to  impel  large 
masses  of  the  party  to  organize  in  opposition  to  its  nom 
inees.  For  many  weeks  after  the  nomination  of  Gartield  in 
1880,  defeat  seemed  inevitable.  In  each  case  the  shock  of 
disappointment  was  followed  by  sober,  second  thought.  In 
dividual  preference  gradually  yielded  to  convictions  of  pub 
lic  duty.  Promptings  of  patriotism  finally  rose  superior  to 
the  irritations  and  animosities  of  the  hour.  The  party  in 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  235 

every  trial  has  grown  stronger  in  the  face  of  threatened 
danger. 

In  tendering  you  the  nomination,  it  gives  us  pleasure  to 
remember  those  great  measures  which  furnished  causes  for 
party  congratulations  by  the  late  Convention  at  Chicago, 
and  which  are  now  crystallized  into  the  legislation  of  the 
country;  measures  which  have  strengthened  and  dignified 
the  nation,  and  while  they  elevated  and  advanced  the  peo 
ple,  have  at  all  times  and  on  all  proper  occasions  received 
your  earnest  and  valuable  support. 

It  was  your  good  fortune  to  aid  in  protecting  the  nation 
against  the  assaults  of  armed  treason;  you  were  present 
and  helped  to  unloose  the  shackles  of  the  slave  ;  you  assisted 
in  placing  a  new  guarantee  of  freedom  in  the  Federal  Con 
stitution;  your  voice  was  potent  in  preserving  the  national 
faith,  when  false  theories  of  finance  would  have  blasted 
national  and  individual  prosperity.  We  kindly  remember 
you  as  a  fast  friend  of  honest  money  and  commercial  integ 
rity.  In  all  that  pertains  to  the  security  and  repose  of  cap 
ital,  dignity  of  labor,  manhood,  elevation  and  freedom  of 
the  people,  the  right  of  the  oppressed  to  demand  and  the 
duty  of  the  government  to  afford  protection,  your  public 
acts-have  received  unqualified  indorsement  and  popular  ap 
proval.  But  we  are  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  parties, 
like  individuals,  can  not  live  entirely  on  the  past,  however 
splendid  the  record.  The  present  is  ever  charged  with  im 
mediate  cares,  and  the  future  presses  on  with  its  new  duties 
and  its  perplexing  responsibilities.  Parties,  like  individ 
uals,  however,  that  are  free  from  stain  and  unviolated  faith 
in  the  past,  are  fairly  entitled  to  the  presumption  of  sin 
cerity  in  their  promises  for  the  future. 

Among  the  promises  made  by  the  party  in  its  late  Con 
vention  at  Chicago  are:  Economy  in  party  administra 
tion;  protection  of  citizens,  native  and  naturalized,  at  home 
and  abroad;  a  prompt  restoration  of  the  navy;  a  wise 
reduction  of  the  surplus  revenues,  relieving  the  tax-payer, 
without  injuring  the  laborer;  the  preservation  of  public 
lands  for  actual  settlers;  import  duties,  when  necessary 


23G  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

at  all,  to  be  levied  not  for  revenue  only,  but  for  the  double 
purpose  of  revenue  and  protection;  the  regulation  of  inter 
nal  commerce  and  the  settlement  of  internal  differences  by 
peaceful  arbitration,  but  coupled  with  the  reassert  ion  and 
maintenance  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  as  interpreted  by  the 
fathers  of  the  republic;  perseverance  in  the  good  work 
of  civil  service  reform  to  the  end  that  the  dangers  of  free 

O 

institutions  which  lurk  in  the  power  of  official  patronage, 
may  be  wisely  and  effectively  avoided;  honest  currency, 
based  on  coin  of  intrinsic  value,  adding  strength  to  the 
public  credit  and  giving  renewed  vitality  to  every  branch  of 
American  industry. 

Mr.  Blaine,  during  the  last  twenty -three  years  the  Repub 
lican  party  has  builded  a  new  republic;  a  republic  far  more 
splendid  than  that  originally  designed  by  our  fathers.  As 
its  proportions  are  already  grand,  they  may  yet  be  enlarged; 
its  foundations  may  yet  be  strengthened,  and  its  columns 
adorned  with  beauty  more  resplendent  still.  To  you,  as  its 
architect-in-chief,  will  soon  be  assigned  this  grateful  work." 

Mr.  Blaine  replied  to  the  notification  of  his  nomination 
in  the  following  words: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  National  Commit 
tee:  I  receive,  not  without  deep  sensibility,  your  official 
notice  of  the  action  of  the  National  Convention,  already 
brought  to  my  knowledge  through  the  public  press.  1  ap 
preciate  more  profoundly  than  I  can  express  the  honor 
which  is  implied  in  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  by 
the  Republican  party  of  the  nation,  speaking  through  the 
authoritative  voice  of  their  duly  accredited  delegates. 

To  be  selected  as  a  candidate  from  such  an  assemblage, 
from  the  list  of  eminent  statesmen,  whose  names  were  pre 
sented,  fills  me  with  embarrassment.  I  can  only  express 
my  gratitude  for  so  signal  an  honor,  and  rny  desire  to  prove 
worthy  of  the  great  trust  reposed  in  me  in  accepting  the 
nomination  as  I  now  do.  I  am  impressed;  I  am  also  op 
pressed  with  the  sense  of  the  labor  and  responsibility  which 
attaches  to  my  position.  The  burden  is  lightened,  however, 
by  the  host  of  earnest  men  who  support  my  candidacy. 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  237 

A  more  formal  acceptance  will  naturally  be  expected,  and 
will  in  due  season  be  communicated.  It  may,  however,  not  be 
inappropriate  at  this  time  to  say  that  I  have  already  made 
a  careful  study  of  the  principles  announced  by  the  National 
Convention,  and  that,  in  the  whole  and  in  detail,  they  have 
my  heartiest  sympathy  and  meet  my  unqualified  approval. 

Apart  from  your  official  errand,  gentlemen,  I  am  extremely 
happy  to  welcome  you  to  my  house.  With  many  of  you  I 
have  already  shared  the  duties  of  public  service,  and  have 
enjoyed  most  cordial  friendship.  I  trust  your  journey  from 
all  parts  of  the  great  republic  has  been  agreeable,  and  that 
during  your  stay  in  Maine,  you  will  feel  that  you  are  not 
among  strangers,  but  with  friends.  Invoking  the  blessings 
of  God  upon  the  great  cause  which  we  jointly  represent,  let 
us  turn  to  the  future  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Elaine's  reply,  the  members  of 
the  committee  were  introduced  to  him  individually,  and  an 
hour  was  spent  in  social  and  informal  converse.  The  mem 
bers  of  the  committee  then  repaired  to  the  residence  of  Col. 
Osgood,  where  they  were  entertained  at  lunch. 


238  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

A  formal  notification  to  the  Presidential  nominee,  by  a 
special  committee,  selected  in  the  Convention  making  the 
nomination,  is  a  comparatively  recent  departure  in  Ameri 
can  politics,  and  still  more  recent  is  the  custom  of  such  nomi 
nees  replying  by  written  letters  of  acceptance.  As  stated 
in  a  preceding  chapter,  giving  the  history  of  conventions, 
until  1832  candidates  for  the  Presidency  were  nominated  by 
Congressional  caucus,  or  by  a  public  sentiment,  manifested 
in  the  action  of  State  Legislatures. 

In  1828  Gen.  Jackson  was  first  proposed  for  the  Presi 
dency  by  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee,  and  that  action  was 
supplemented  by  a  State  Convention,  held  at  Harrisburg, 
Pa.  There  was  no  central  authority.  The  candidate  was 
made  so  by  general  acclaim,  and  the  only  formal  ceremony 
was  usually  a  ratification  meeting,  held  at  some  populous 
point,  at  which  the  candidate  appeared  and  made  a  speech. 
This  was  the  case  in  1832,  when  the  first  National  Conven 
tion  ever  held,  assembled  at  Baltimore,  in  May.  This  was 
proclaimed  at  the  time  as  the  downfall  of  "  King  Caucus," 
and  from  that  time,  Presidential  candidates  have  been  the 
product  of  National  Conventions.  The  only  controversy  at 
that  time  was  over  the  Vice-President,  there  being  great 
opposition  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  seemed  to  be  entitled  to  the 
office  by  right  of  succession.  The  result,  however,  was  the 
nomination  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  Mr.  Van  Buren  received 
the  news  at  a  hotel,  and  acklowledgcd  the  honor  from  the 
balcony.  Jackson,  being  then  President,  was  not  even 


JAM  US    G.    BLAINE.  231) 

formally  notified.  He  was  supposed  to  read  the  news  in 
the  papers,  and,  as  he  did  not  decline  the  candidacy,  the 
latter  went  "  without  saying." 

Formal  letters  of  acceptance  were  rather  the  outcome  of 
political  platforms,  and  these  did  not  come  into  existence 
as  such  until  1840.  Then  the  Convention  which  nominated 
Van  Buren  had  a  series  of  "  resolves  "  as  long  as  the  moral 
law.  Prior  to  that,  party  principles  were  set  forth  in 
what  was  known  as  an  "Address  to  the  People."  This  was 
the  work  of  a  committee  as  now,  but  was  put  forth  in  much 
more  diffuse  shape  than  mere  resolutions,  and  was  signed 
by  the  Chairman  of  the  Convention. 

There  was  no  written  acceptance  of  a  nomination  for 
President  until  1848,  and  that  was  decidedly  informal. 
Somebody  got  up  in  the  Whig  Convention  and  asked  how 
they  knew  that  Gen.  Taylor  would  accept  the  nomination, 
if  tendered  him.  Lewis  D.  Campbell,  of  Ohio,  produced  a 
letter  from  the  General,  addressed  to  Capt.  Allison,  ex 
pressing  a  willingness  to  make  the  race.  That  settled  it, 
but  even  then  there  was  a  hitch,  for  nobody  knew  how  Gen." 
Taylor  stood  on  the  question  of  slavery  extension,  which 
had  just  come  into  prominence,  and  was  made  a  great  Whig 
issue.  Nobody  could  explain  how  the  General  stood,  so  the 
Convention  adjourned  without  making,  any  platform  at  all. 
They  took  old  Zachary  entirely  on  trust.  At  a  ratification 
meeting,  two  weeks  later,  in. Philadelphia,  however,  a  series 
of  resolves  was  passed,  and  stood  for  the  Whig  platform 
for  that  campaign.  As  Zachary  was  not  heard  from  as 
repudiating  those  resolves,  his  candidacy  existed  without 
question. 

The  first  formal  letter  of  acceptance  of  which  there  is  any 
record  now  obtainable  was  that  of  Gen.  Scott's  in  1852.  Its 


240  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

singularity,  perhaps,  Jed  to  its  preservation.  The  Whigs  of 
that  year  had  adopted  a  kind  of  catch-all  platform.  It 
promised  everything  to  everybody,  and  seemed  to  fore 
shadow  the  approach  of  the  millennium.  Gen.  Scott  ad 
dressed  his  letter  to  the  President  of  the  Convention,  J.  G. 
Chapman,  and  in  it  he  took  up  each  resolve  and  promised 
like  a  schoolboy,  who  might  hope  to  win  merit  marks  for 
good  behavior,  faithfully  to  carry  it  out. 

The  simplicity  of  the  letter,  the  spirit  of  "Oh  Mister, 
give  me  this  and  I  will  be  good,"  ran  so  completely"  through 
the  composition  that  everybody  laughed.  The  subserviency 
of  the  thing,  coupled  with  the  famous  speeches  of  Scott 
which  bid  in  the  most  abject  way  for  class  and  sectarian  and 
race  votes,  effectually  squelched  the  General,  and  he  was 
beaten  ingloriously.  There  is  no  record  of  Pierce's  letter 
of  acceptance,  but  in  1856  we  find  Buchanan's.  It  was  a 
mere  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  honor  and  a  promise 
to  stand  by  the  platform  of  the  Democratic  party,  which, 
by  the  way,  was  the  longest  political  platform  ever  adopted. 
It  contained  six  "whereas,"  fourteen  "resolves,"  and 
twenty-two  subdivisions  of  resolves.  The  whole  would 
make  fully  twelve  pages  of  a  book  like  this,  Fremont's 
letter  was  also  short,  but  there  were  signs  even  then  of  the 
well-known  egotism  of  the  man.  The  personal  pronoun  "I" 
occurs  in  it  sixteen  times,  and  two  distinct  references  to 
the  services  of  the  "Pathfinder,"  etc.  Letters  of  accept 
ance  became  general,  however,  in  18GO.  Then  all  candi 
dates  wrote  them,  and  in  that  year,  too,  appears  the  lir.-t 
record  of  a  formal  committee  to  wait  upon  the  candidates. 
Abraham  Lincoln's  was  very  brief.  He  simply  said: 

I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  me  by  the  Convention 
over  which  you  preside.  The  declaration  of  principles  and 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  241 

sentiments  which  accompanies  your  letter  meets  my  appro 
val,  and  it  shall  be  my  care  not  to  violate  or  disregard  it  in 
any  part;  imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence 
and  with  due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who 
were  represented  in  the  Convention;  to  the  rights  of  all  the 
States  and  Territories  and  people  of  the  nation ;  to  the  in 
violability  of  the  Constitution  and  the  perpetual  union,  har 
mony  and  prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy  to  co-operate 
for  the  practical  success  of  the  principles  declared  by  the 
Convention.  Your  obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

That  was  all.  It  was  simple,  straightforward,  and  evi 
dently  written  with  a  keen  sense  of  the  responsibility  he  was 
about  to  assume.  His  humble  trust  in  Providence  is  but 
another  evidence  of  the  deep  religious  feeling  that  always 
actuated  Mr.  Lincoln's  great  and  lofty  impulses. 

Mr.  Hamlin  had  less  humility.  He  had  much  to  say,  and 
said  it  at  considerable  and  unnecessary  length.  There  was 
a  redundancy  about  his  composition  that  conveys  the  idea 
that  he  meant  that  paper  to  be  the  greatest  production  of 
his  life,  one  that  would  live  in  history.  Mr.  Brecken- 
ridge's  letter  was  also  quite  long,  and  it  expressed  senti 
ments  which,  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  seemed  to 
have  placed  the  writer  in  a  ridiculous  position.  " Above 
all,"  he  said  at  the  close,  "I  venture  humbly  to  hope  that 
Divine  Providence,  to  which  we  owe  our  origin,  our  growth 
and  all  our  prosperity,  will  continue  to  protect  our  beloved 
country  against  all  danger,  both  foreign  and  domestic." 
And  yet  in  less  than  a  year  after  this  candidate  who  had  in 
voked  Divine  help  to  protect  his  country  from  "domestic" 
danger,  was  found  in  a  rebel  uniform  fighting  against  it. 
When  a  loyal  shot  from  a  United  States  gunboat  at  Port 
Hudson  took  off  his  arm,  perhaps  Mr.  Breckenridge  again 


242  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

invoked  Divine  help,  and  probably  then  with  more  sin 
cerity. 

Douglas'  letter  was  just  what  might  have  been  expected 
of  him.  It  was  a  clean-cut  re-annunciation  of  the  views 
which  everybody  knew  he  held.  He  ignored  the  platform 
of  his  party,  and  struck  out  for  himself.  He  stated  his  own 
views.  He  did  not  repeat  or  synopsize  the  resolutions.  He 
came  out  as  Douglas,  and  wrote  an  original  letter.  Space 
forbids  copying  it  in  full,  but  it  was  a  masterly  proclama 
tion  of  his  own  principles.  It  was  a  letter  of  Douglas*, 
contained  Douglas'  own  views,  and  was  addressed  to  a 
committee  of  Douglas'  friends. 

All  the  candidates  then  wrote  letters.  Bell's  was  short 
and  purposeless.  Jo  Lane,  of  Oregon,  on  the  ticket  with 
Breckenridge,  wrote  in  the  somewhat  grandiloquent  strain 
of  the  times;  indeed,  it  was  noticeable  at  that  period  that  all 
the  candidates  for  the  office  of  Vice-President  wrote  longer, 
more  imposing  and  high-sounding  letters,  than  did  the  prin 
cipal  candidates.  Lane's  was  very  long.  So  was  Herschel 
Johnson's,  though  he  was  a  makeshift  candidate  with 
Douglas  in  place  of  Fitzpatrick,  who,  in  a  bitter  letter,  had 
declined.  But  the  longest,  most  imposing,  most  grandilo 
quent  and  oratorical  effusion  was  that  of  Edward  Everett, 
on  the  ticket  with  Bell. 

Mr.  Everett  felt  called  upon  to  narrate  the  history  of  the 
times,  and  expound  his  own  views  as  he  had  held  them  for 
a  third  of  a  century,  He  embraced  in  his  letter  a  great 
speech,  an  epic,  a  wonderful  dissertation.  His  rhetoric 
was  turgid  and  ponderous;  his  sentences  labored,  diffuse, 
and  reeking  with  verbiage.  The  whole  effort,  as  preserved 
in  the  annals,  sounds  funny,  especially  as  its  author  got 
less  votes  than  any  of  the  candidates.  Mr.  Everett's  letter 


JAMES    G.    ULAINti.  243 

of  acceptance,  if  printed  now  in  this  work,  would  occupy 
not  less  than  twenty  pages. 

We  are  not  able  to  find  any  record  of  Gen.  McClellan's 
letter  of  1864,  nor  of  Seymour's  in  1868,  though  the  latter, 
it  is  remembered,  was  lengthy,  and  reviewed  the  platform 
comprehensively.  But  in  its  references  to  the  war  and  the 
re-construction  measures  then  pending,  it  took  such  ground 
as  to  antagonize  the  war  spirit  of  his  own  party,  and  defeat 
was  understood  as  inevitable  from  the  start.  Gen.  Grant's 
letter,  in  1868,  was  a  mere  note  of  acknowledgment, 
couched  in  the  language  of  the  camp.  It  read  like:  "Gen 
eral  Order  No.  — ,  in  the  Field."  But  in  1872  his  accept 
ance  was  expressed  in  elegant  language,  full  of  patriotic 
resolution.  Senator  Wilson,  however,  spread  himself  to 
the  extent  of  about  4,000  words,  one  feature  of  his  letter 
being  a  cordial  sentiment  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage. 
Greeley's  letter  was  a  masterpiece,  written  with  all  the 
power  that  the  great  editor  could  command.  All  that  won 
derful  force  that  had  become  so  familiar  in  the  Tribune, 
was  brought  into  play,  and  in  language,  arrangement  of 
themes,  directness  of  diction  and  power  of  logic,  the  "  old 
man  "  gave  the  fullest  evidence  of  his  greatness  as  a  master 
of  English  and  his  capacity  to  concentrate  thought.  Per 
haps  Greeley's  letter  will  rank  in  future  years  as  the  most 
cogent  State  paper  of  the  days  in  which  he  lived.  Gratz 
Brown's  was  long  but  weak.  It  contained  no  new  thoughts, 
nor  was  it  much  else  than  a  paraphrase  of  the  platform. 

Four  years  later  Mr.  Hayes'  letter  appeared.  It  was 
tame,  and  contained  nothing  beyond  promises  to  carry  out 
the  party's  wishes.  Mr.  Wheeler's  was  no  abler,  and  has 
therefore  passed  out  of  mind. 

Mr.  Tilden's  letter  in  1876,  was  the  State  paper  of  the 


244  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

day.  It  did  more  than  any  platform  of  his  party  or  vote  of 
the  Convention  which  nominated  him,  to  bring  him  close  to 
the  patriotic  sentiment  of  the  people.  Though  rather 
prolix,  it  was  full  of  thought  and  statesmanship.  The  Gar- 
field  letter  of  four  years  ago,  also  ranks  as  a  great  paper, 
and  it  undoubtedly  was.  Had  Mr.  Garfield  lived  to  put  in 
force  the  principles  he  there  so  ably  gave  voice  to,  his  ad 
ministration  might  have  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
perfect  in  American  history. 

The  long  and  very  intimate  relations  which  existed  be 
tween  President  Garfield  and  Mr.  Elaine,  as  well,  also,  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Elaine  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  par 
ticularly  subsequent  events,  gave  rise  to  the  impression  that 
Garfield' s  letter  of  acceptance  was  not  prepared  entirely 
without  advice  or  suggestion  from  Mr.  Elaine;  indeed,  the 
perfect  accord  of  sentiment  and  policy  between  the  two  fur 
nish  strong  circumstantial  proof  that  Garfield  had  at  least 
consulted  with  Elaine  upon  pertinent  issues  which  were  dis 
cussed  in  the  letter  of  acceptance. 

At  this  writing,  Mr.  Elaine  has  not  made  public  his  epis 
tolary  utterances,  in  response  to  the  Convention  which  hon 
ored  him  with  the  nomination,  contenting  himself  for  the 
time  with  an  acknowledgment  of  his  gratitude,  and  accept- 
tance,  made  to  the  committee  who  officially  notified  him  of 
his  selection  to  carry  the  Republican  standard,  as  already 
printed.  There  is  little  real  need  for  Mr.  Elaine  to  write  a 
letter,  which  is  but  conformance  to  a  custom  that  has  com 
paratively  recently  been  established;  for  his  long  public 
services,  including  a  brilliant  leadership  in  the  days  of  both 
horrid  war  and  piping  peate,  has  made  him  so  familiar  to 
the  people  that  they  know  his  policy  and  can  almost  fore 
see  the  character  of  his  administration.  Nevertheless,  CD- 


JAMES   G.    BLAINE.  245 

cleared  as  he  is  for  his  great  abilities  and  bold  avowals,  there 
has  been  much  desire  expressed  to  read  his  letter  of  accept 
ance,  because  there  is  an  anticipation  that,  like  his  State 
papers  and  political  debates,  it  will  bristle  with  sharp  and 
direct  points  of  immediate  application,  and  a  perspicuous 
statement  of  the  real  issues  which  enter  into  the  campaign* 
Mr.  Elaine  justly  merits  the  reputation,  which  he  has  long 
borne,  of  being  one  of  the  most  trenchant,  as  well  as  the 
most  thoughtful  writers  of  the  age,  while  his  knowledge  of 
men,  and  wonderful  comprehension  of  political  measures 
and  propositions,  lead  the  public  to  expect  of  him  nothing 
that  is  not  brilliant  and  full  of  wisdom.  That  no  disap 
pointment  will  be  suffered  in  this  expectation  may  be  now 
declared,  for  he  has  already  given  to  confidential  friends 
enough  of  his  letter  to  confirm  belief  in  its  vigorous  states 
manship. 

The  excuse  for  Mr.  Elaine's  delay  in  giving  his  letter  to 
the  public  is  probably  due  to  the  date  of  the  Democratic 
Presidential  Convention,  wThich  was  arranged  to  meet  a 
month  later  than  the  Republican  Convention,  undoubtedly 
to  take  advantage  of  any  disaffection  or  disappointment 
which  might  result  from  the  Republican  nominations.  This 
political  mano3uver  can  best  be  counteracted  by  a  lucid  ex 
position  from  Mr.  Elaine's  magnetic  pen,  followed  by  a 
bold  enunciation  of  his  purposes,  which  Republicans  every 
where  believe  will  prove  so  emphatic  and  conclusive  as  will 
discomfit  Democracy,  and  win  back  the  alienated  few  who 
have  ill-considerately  decried  his  nomination. 

Further  justification  for  Mr.  Elaine's  delay  is  found  in 
the  indecision  manifested  by  the  Democracy  on  the  question 
of  tariff  reform,  who  are  now  truculently  vascillating  in  a 
vain  effort  to  adopt  variant  opinions  expressed  by  the  East 


246  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

and  West,  or  by  the  manufacturing  and  consuming  classes 
These  irreconcilable  differences  within  the  party,  which  pre 
vent  a  graceful  straddle,  have  been  the  inducement  whicl 
influenced  the  Democrats  to  defer  their  Convention   unti 
July,  and  perceiving  this,  Mr.  Elaine  has  delayed  his  lette 
until  such  a  time  as  he  could  discuss,  with  direct  force  am 
effect,  whatever  final  action  his  opposing  party  may  take 
appreciating  how  vulnerable  must  be  its   nominations   01 
platform.     This   view   of   the   political  situation,   whethei 
true  or  not,  largely  increases  the  interest  of  his  letter,  by 
leading  to  a   popular   expectation  that  it  will  prove  pre 
eminently  the  most  thorough  and  ablest  communication  that 
has  ever  been  addressed  to  the  American  people. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  249 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Since  Mr.  Elaine  was  first  suggested  for  the  Presidency, 
;hrough  the  three  campaigns  in  which  he  has  so  prominently 
igured,  very  much  has  been  said  about  his  foreign  policy. 
What  is  it?  The  answer  commends  itself  to  every  sovereign 
vvithin  the  national  realm.  His  policy  is  to  make  this  nation 

respected  institution  among  the  world's  governments; 
:o  enforce  the  rights  of  every  American  citizen,  at  home  and 
ibroad;  to  plant  firmly,  positively  again,  the  principles  of 
pure  republicanism  which  have  been  so  seriously  impaired 
the  introduction  of  tawdry  and  emasculating  European 
mannerisms  ;  to  say  unto  kingly  powers,  "We  respect  your 
laws  when  they  are  just,  but  as  a  republic,  we  cannot  bow 
:lown  before  your  crowns ;  though  we  have  no  rulers  who 
:laim  the  divine  right  to  govern  and  oppress,  and  are  not  in 
;he  league  of  hereditary  autocrats  bedizened  with  costly 
-obes  and  bejeweled  scepters,  yet  this  is  a  nation  composed 
:>f  brain  and  brawn,  that  recognizes  the  sovereignty  of  jus- 
:ice  and  citizenship  only."  This  is  Mr.  Elaine's  policy, 
briefly  outlined. 

The  people  of  this  republic  are  proud  of  it,  and  believe 
in  it.  They  hate  to  see  themselves  in  an  apologetic  atti 
tude,  or  eating  humble  pie.  They  love  to  see  America 
represented  at  foreign  courts  by  men  who  are  out-and-out 
Americans — men  with  no  hankerings  after  aristocracy  or 
royalty ;  men  who  feel  that  they  have  fifty  millions  of  free 
men  behind  them.  For  the  enemies  of  Elaine  to  attack  him 
on  the  ground  that  his  foreign  policy  would  be  "risky," 
will  not  harm  him  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  There  is  very 


250  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

little  danger  of  war  where  men  are  simply  firm  and  positive 
in  asserting  the  right.  The  danger  lies  in  the  timidity 
which  suffers  aggression  to  the  point  where  it  becomes 
unendurable. 

We  do  not  want  war ;  all  our  interests  favor  peace,  in 
that  further  acquisition  of  territory  is  not  desired,  and  our 
remote  position  from  other  powers  gives  us* exemption  from 
the  necessity  of  cultivating  the  art  of  fighting.  This  fact 
is  well  understood  and  appreciated,  but  to  remain  insensible 
to  honor  by  allowing  any  infraction  of  our  rights  is  to  court 
contempt  and  avarice  and  internecine  spirit,  which  might 
destroy  our  independence  and  invite  invasion.  Mr.  Blaine 
does  not  stand  with  a  chip  on  his  shoulder,  daring  any 
power  to  knock  it  off,  but  my  individual  conception  of  his 
character  is,  that  were  he  President,  and  sixteen  of  the 
noble,  liberty-loving  subjects  of  our  country  should  betaken, 
and,  without  trial  or  notice,  shot  down  within  the  walls  of 
Moro  Castle,  he  would  demand  some  explanation  from 
the  government  that  murdered  them.  I  believe  that  he 
would  apply  such  prompt  and  energetic  measures  that  Vir- 
ginius  massacres  would  become  decidedly  unpopular  to  the 
nations  that  attempted  them  on  American  subjects.  I  be 
lieve  that  Mr.  Blaine,  were  he  President,  would  demand  the 
release,  or  the  reason  for  the  detention,  of  a  poor  Jew  who, 
having  entered  Siberia  without  a  formal  passport,  through 
ignorance  of  Russia's  requirements,  and  charged  with  no 
crime,  has  been  pining  in  that  bleak  and  far-off  waste  for 
two  years,  unable  to  get  this  country,  of  which  he  is  a  sov 
ereign,  to  consider  his  case.  In  short,  I  believe  that 
Mr.  Blaine  is  such  a  thorough  Republican,  and  so  full  of  the 
pride  of  a  noble  ancestry  that  toiled  through  the  smoke  and 
carnage  of  revolution  to  found  a  government  of  and  for  the 


JAMES    G.    BLAI^E.  251 

Deople,  that  he  would  render  secure,  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  the  rights  of  every  American  subject;  that  he  would 
make  our  form  of  government  respected,  because  it  deserve^ 
respect. 

These  guarantees,  which  are  promised  in  our  constitution, 
)ut  honored  in  the  breach,  should  attract  every  class,  of  all 
lationalities,  the  German,  the  Irish,  the  French,  as  well  as 
he  American  born,  because  protection  is  the  chief  object  of 
all  governments,  and  without  it  there  is  no  bond  of  union. 

The  Hon.  Emory  Storrs,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  Cincin 
nati  at  the  grand  ratification  held  there  June  14th,  defined 
Mr.  Elaine's  foreign  policy  in  the  following  glowing  lan- 

lage: 

This  brings  me,  gentlemen,  to  a  consideration  quite  briefly 
of  our  own  candidate — the  history  of  James  G.  Elaine.  [Great 
applause.]  This  is  and  will  be  no  defensive  campaign. 
Have  no  anxiety  whatever  about  that.  This  old  powder  has 
been  burned  once,  and  the  tattoos  which  we  see  upon  him  are 
the  inscriptions  of  splendid  achievements,  placed  there  by 
an  admiring  people,  who  have  elevated  him  away  above  the 
slanders  and  detractions  of  his  enemies,  and  will  place  him 
in  the  most  commanding  position  of  the  nation  which  he  has 
done  so  much  to  honor.  [Roars  of  applause.]  Why,  the 
brokers  of  Wall  street  are  afraid  of  Mr.  Elaine's  foreign 
policy.  With  shuddering  fear,  with  quivering  lip  and 
trembling  nerve,  mention  a  foreign  policy  and  they  instantly 
hie  to  tneir  fortifications  and  their  earthworks.  What 
kind  of  a  foreign  policy  is  it?  What  kind  of  a  foreign 
policy  does  our  platform  demand?  What  kind  of  a  foreign 
policy  do  you  require?  What  kind  of  a  foreign  policy  do 
you  want?  What  kind  of  a  foreign  policy  do  the  emergen 
cies  and  necessities  of  the  nation  absolutely  and  impera 
tively  exact?  We  are  not  respected  abroad.  I  say  we 
should  be.  [Applause.]  We  are  unrespected  at  home.  I 
say  this  should  not  be.  [Renewed  applause.]  I  want  no 


252  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

war.     I  want  long  summer  days  of  prosperous  peace, 
know  of  but  one  way  to  secure  them,  and  that  is  prompt!; 
and  at  once  to  place  ourselves  in  such  a  position  that  insul 
or  assault  can  be  so  readily  resented  that  neither  will  eve; 
be  made.      [Tumultuous  applause.]      When  we  are  mad< 
the  sport  of  every  foreign  power,  when  we  have  not  ade 
quate  seaport  defences,  we  invite  assault.  We  stand  a  great 
big,  hulky,  sturdy  nation,  with  our  hands  helplessly  by  oui 
side,  utterly  unable  not  only  to  protect  our  interests  else 
where   in   the  world,    but   utterly   unable   to   defend    and 
justify  ourselves  at  home.     The  condition  is  one  of  shame, 
indignity   and  outrage  upon  ourselves,  that  every  spirited 
American  will  rejoice  to  see  at   once   corrected.     I   want 
something  more  than  this.     Now,  I  am  speaking  merely  for 
myself.     I  am  binding  nobody. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  old  notion  of  our  insularity 
and  freedom  from  alliances  with  foreign  powers  must  cease. 
We  are  to-day  six  days  from  Europe.  Nearer,  much  nearer, 
than  Cincinnati  was  to  New  York  fifty  years  ago.  We  have 
trade  with  every  part  of  the  world.  We  have  our  products 
in  every  civilized  land  beneath  the  sun.  Our  commercial 
interests  are  all  over  the  globe.  There  is  not  a  gun-boat 
over  which  the  flag  of  this  great  nation  floats,  adequate  to 
defend  an  insulted  American  in  the  meanest  seaport  of  the 
smallest  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth!  ("Good"  and 
applause.]  Moreover  (I  may  be  radical),  the  time  has 
come,  it  is  full  upon  us,  without  meaning  any  war,  that  the 
old,  old  theory  of  non-intervention  must  be  exploded.  We 
are  interested  in  what  is  going  on  all  over  the  world.  Our 
trade  must  be  protected  and  cared  for  wherever  it  extends. 
That  nation  is  unfit  to  be  called  a  nation  which  will  not  de 
fend  the  imperiled  rights  of  its  citizens  at  home  or  abroad, 
wherever  they  are  assaulted.  [Great  applause.]  I  give  to 
my  country  allegiance;  I  recognize  its  laws;  I  obey  loyally 
and  willingly  on  all  occasions,  wherever  obedience  is  required. 
I  expect  protection,  and  when  my  government  fails  to  give 
it  to  me,  it  is  my  right  to  take  its  constitution  in  my  hand, 
and  say,  "  You  blustering,  bullying,  bragging,  non-perforn> 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  253 

ing  fraud  of  a  government,  protect  me  as  you  have  agreed 
to  do  or  quit  business. "  [Great  applause.]  There  is  no 
war  in  this.  Moreover,  I  don't  want  to  see  the  butter  and 
the  cheese  and  the  wool  of  Ohio  go  to  Brazil  by  the  way  of 
Liverpool.  [Applause.]  The  route  is  too  circuitous.  I 
want  to  see  it  go  straight  from  Cincinnati  or  Cleveland,  to 
its  South  American  destination,  bearing  the  stamp  of  the 
eagle,  rather  than  by  circuitous  way,  twisted  by  the  way  of 
Liverpool,  and  bearing  the  fraudulent  mark  of  the  lion  and 
unicorn.  Now,  gentlemen,  that  does  not  mean  war.  That 
is  James  G.  Blaine.  That  is  his  foreign  policy.  That  is 
my  foreign  policy.  That  is  your  foreign  policy.  This  is 
the  foreign  policy  of  every  solid,  level-headed,  right-think 
ing  man  in  America,  who  is  not  a  broker,  and  who  is  not  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  market. 


254  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Mr.  Elaine,  in  private  life,  is  a  man  of  wonderful  mag 
netism,  undoubtedly  greater  than  that  of  any  other  man 
seen  in  public  life  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  lie 
has  a  phenomenal  memory.  He  remembers  circumstances, 
dates,  names  and  places  readily,  and  it  is  this  wonderfully 
available  memory  that  makes  him  a  ready  speaker  and  a 
charming  companion.  He  has,  also,  great  quickness  and 
accuracy  of  judgment.'  He  writes  as  readily  and  as  strongly 
as  he  speaks,  and  very  rapidly.  Mr.  Blaineis  slightly  above 
the  average  height,  and  burly  in  form.  His  hair  is  nearly 
white,  and  thin  on  top,  and  his  beard  is  not  heavy.  He  has 
a  fair  but  not  imposing  head.  Large  at  the  base,  his  per 
ceptive  and  emotional  faculties  overpower  those  of  reason. 
His  figure  is  well  preserved,  he  dresses  with  care,  and  is  of 
handsome  personnel.  He  has  made  use  of  no  means  to 
conceal  the  ravages  time  and  anxieties  have  made  on  his 
hair,  and  wears  it  close  cut,  the  color  making  all  the  more 
noticeable  his  dark  eyes,  which  glitter  and  flash  with  temper, 
or  glow  lustrous  and  beam  forth  amiably,  as  the  mood  is 
on  him. 

His  home  has  been  the  resort  of  the  most  intellectual  peo 
ple  of  the  age  in  this  country.  There  is  nothing  about  him 
of  that  assumption  of  aristocratic  exclusiveness  so  common 
among  public  men.  His  home  is  well,  and  even  elegantly, 
furnished,  but  it  is  all  made  for  use,  and  not  for  mere  dis 
play.  It  is  there  that  he  is  seen  at  his  best,  and  his  power 
comes  largely  from  his  faculty  of  winning  the  affection  of 
men  by  epigrammatic  speech,  his  easy  manners,  and  his 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  255 

uniform,  unaffected  good  nature.  He  knows  how  to  unbend 
at  all  times,  without  any  of  those  patronizing  airs  so  com 
mon  in  society  with  men  who  have  succeeded.  Few  men  in 
either  party  have  left  his  presence  without  strong  and 
pleasant  memories  of  the  vigorous  character  which  he 
possesses. 

Mr.  Elaine  is  now  in  his  fifty-fifth  year.  Although  above 
medium  height,  he  is  so  compactly  and  powerfully  built  that 
he  scarcely  seems  tall.  His  features  are  large  and  expres 
sive;  he  is  slightly  bald,  and  his  neatly  trimmed  beard  is 
prematurely  gray ;  his  brows  are  lowering — his  eyes  keen. 
On  the  floor  of  Congress  he  manifested  wonderful  power 
and  nerve.  His  voice  is  rich  and  melodious;  his  delivery 
is  fluent  and  vigorous;  his  gestures  are  full  of  grace  and 
force;  his  self-possession  is  remarkable. 

Mr.  Elaine  has  always  manifested  great  earnestness,  and 
his  record  shows  the  purity  of  thought  and  intent  which  has 
actuated  him.  A  most  violent  and  virulent  opposition 
paper,  the  New  York  Times,  says  of  him : 

On  the  floor  he  was  an  advocate  of  measures  calculated  to 
promote  the  purity  and  efficiency  of  the  public  service.  In 
1868  he  introduced  a  resolution  intended  to  prevent  and 
punish  frauds  upon  the  revenue,  and  in  previous  sessions  he 
spoke  ably  against  extravagant  salaries.  He  lived  up  to  his 
record  in  1873  by  vigorously  opposing  the  salary  increase 
bill,  and  in  the  Speaker's  chair  struck  out  the  proposed  in 
crease  of  his  own  salary. 

Another  opposition  paper,  the  Washington  Post,  pays 
him  a  deserved  compliment  in  the  following  language: 

In  looking  back  over  Mr.  Elaine's  public  career,  most 
people  will  be  impressed  with  the  brilliancy  of  his  service 
in  Congress  and  his  remarkable  administrative  ability  as 
Secretary  of  State.  It  was  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 


256  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

as  a  turbulent  leader  of  a  turbulent  minority,  or  the  auto 
cratic  Speaker  elected  by  an  autocratic  majority,  that  he 
made  his  reputation.  Never  taking  part  in  the  discussion 
of  abstract  subjects,  he  reserved  his  eloquence  for  occasions 
when  parliamentary  ability  was  in  demand.  In  partisan 
debates  on  general  matters,  in  dogmatic  assertion,  keen  wit, 
withering  sarcasm  and  overpowering  denunciation,  he  has  had 
few  if  any  equals  in  this  country.  No  one  could  stand  be 
fore  him,  and  the  man  who  crossed  swords  with  him  once 
on  the  floor  rarely  tried  it  again.  As  a  member  of  the  Cab 
inet  he  was  aggressive,  tireless  in  his  activity  and  patriotic 
enthusiasm.  If  elected  President,  he  will  unquestionably 
make  one  of  the  greatest  Executives  the  country  has  ever 
had. 

Thus  the  great  mind,  generous,  magnanimous  and  power 
ful  compass  of  Mr.  Elaine's  intelligence  and  action,  compel 
the  admiration  of  all  classes,  even  during  a  spirited  cam 
paign,  when  contumely  is  expected  to  supply  the  pen  of 
rivalry. 

Mr.  Elaine  has  six  children — three  sons  and  three  daugh 
ters.  The  eldest  son,  John  AValker,  born  in  1855,  is  a 
graduate  of  Yale  and  of  the  Columbia  College  Law  School, 
and  for  some  time  studied  in  St.  Paul,  in  the  law  office  of 
Gov.  Davis.  The  second  son,  Kobert  Emmons,  born  1857, 
was  sent  to  the  Cambridge  Law  School  and  there  graduated. 
James  G.  Elaine,  Jr.,  barn  in  1868,  is  said  to  be  very  like 
his  father.  The  daughters  are  Alice,  born  in  1860,  Marga 
ret,  born  1865,  and  Harriet,  born  1872.  All  the  children 
have  received  superior  training.  John  Walker  Elaine,  the 
eldest  son,  is  a  graduate  of  Yale,  where  he  made  a  good 
record.  He  is  a  bright  lawyer,  a  good  linguist  and  a  pol 
ished  man  of  society.  One  of  the  last  acts  of  Garn'eld  was 
to  make  him  Third  Assistant  Secretary  of  State.  He  is  now 
one  of  the  counsel  for  the  United  States  before  the  French 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  257 

Claims  Commission.  Emmons  Blaine,  another  son,  is  in  a 
railroad  office  in  Chicago,  and  is  doing  well.  During  the 
campaign  Walker  is  acting  as  one  of  the  secretaries  to  his 
father.  Mr.  Elaine's  eldest  daughter  is  the  wife  of  Brevet- 
Lieut. -Colonel  John  J.  Coppinger,  U.  S.  A.,  stationed  at 
Ft.  Assinaboine,  Mont. ;  his  next  eldest  has  only  recently 
made  her  debut  in  Washington  society.  All  the  children 
arc  finely  educated  and  show  to  advantage  for  bright  intelli 
gence  in  the  highest  circles.  In  his  domestic  life  Mr.  Blaine 
is  peculiarly  happy;  it  has  been  his  policy  to  add  every 
possible  effort  towards  making  home  happy  for  himself, 
family  and  friends.  Among  his  children  he  was  ever  a 
romping  boy,  full  of  fun,  ready  for  any  enjoyment  or  game 
they  might  propose.  Like  Daniel  Webster,  Mr.  Blaine 
could  readily  bend  himself  from  the  dignity  of  a  lofty  states 
man,  appealing  to  the  passions  of  a  nation,  to  a  position  of 
humiliating  attitude  on  the  floor  of  his  home,  with  two  chil 
dren  riding  "  double  "  on  his  back.  The  swish  of  a  rod  was 
never  heard  in  his  house,  nor  did  he  or  Mrs.  Blaine  resort 
to  invective  reprimands,  but  governed  with  mildness  and 
love;  as  a  consequence,  the  family  have  lived  in  such  perfect 
harmony  that  their  home  has  ever  bean  a  place  of  complete 
happiness. 

After  Mr.  Blaine's  third  election  to  Congress,  he  removed 
his  family,  then  consisting  of  a  wife  and  two  children,  to 
Washington,  where  he  rented  an  unpretentious  residence  on 
Ninth  street,  near  the  Patent  Office.  In  1869,  after  his 
election  to  the  Speakership,  Mr.  Blaine  moved  into  a  larger 
and  more  comfortable  house  on  Fifteenth  street,  near  Mc- 
Pherson's  Square,  where  he  continued  to  reside  until  1880, 
when  he  built  a  beautiful  residence  in  the  north-west  end  of 
Washington,  its  exact  location  fronting  Dupont  Circle,  at 


258  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

the  junction  of  Massachusetts  avenue  and  P  street.  It  is 
one  of  the  finest,  if  not  indeed  the  finest  residence  in  Wash 
ington  City,  costing,  exclusive  of  the  site  it  occupies,  ninety 
thousand  dollars. 

Mr.  Elaine  occupied  his  beautiful  residence  only  a  few 
months,  when  he  rented  it  to  Mr.  Leiter,  the  Chicago  mil 
lionaire,  and  took  a  small  house  on  Lafayette  square.  Mr. 
Blaine  and  his  wife  are  too  democratic  in  their  desires 
to.  find  happiness  in  a  costly  mansion  reflecting  the 
grandeur  of  riches  and  potentiality.  Mrs.  Blaine  felt  wor 
ried  while  in  the  palace  thus  built  for  her,  the  keeping  up 
of  which  required  many  servants  and  the  expenditure  of  much 
money,  and  their  removal  to  a  modest,  but  comfortable, 
homelike  residence  restored  them  both  to  happiness  again. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  not  a  poor  man  when  he  entered  Congress 
in  1863,  and  he  is  not  a  millionaire  now.  For  twenty  years 
he  has  owned  a  valuable  coal  tract  of  several  hundred  acres 
near  Pittsburg.  This  land  was  a  portion  of  the  immense 
tract  owned  by  his  father,  and  was  all  that  was  saved  from 
the  estate.  It  was  the  good  fortune  of  Mr.  Blaine  to  dis 
cover  coal  on  this  tract,  which  has  yielded  him  a  large  rev 
enue  annually.  His  business  affairs  have  been  managed 
with  prudence  and  shrewdness,  and  he  now  has  a  handsome 
fortune.  His  home  in  Augusta  is  a  plain  two-story  house, 
having  facilities  specially  provided  for  the  work  which  was 
thrust  upon  him  by  his  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  The 
house  is  delightfully  situated,  built  for  comfort  and  con 
venience,  and  ro<5my  enough  to  allow  comfortable  study  and 
writing  rooms,  without  encroaching  on  the  other  apartments. 
The  building  itself  appears  originally  to  have  been  a  square, 
solidly-built  structure  of  two  stories.  Through  it  ran  the 
wide  hallway  still  used,  and,  both  above  and  below,  were 


HON.  J.  G.  BLAINE'S  NEW  RESIDENCE  IN  WASHINGTON  CITY. 

(From  a  Photograph  tal*n  exoressly  for  this  work.) 


JAMES  G.  IJLAINE.  2G1 

large  and  airy  rooms,  which  cannot  yet  be  improved  upon. 
Additions  have  been  built  to  the  rear  of  the  house  as  the 
needs  of  the  family  made  them  necessary,  and  to-day  it 
looks  rambling,  comfortable  and  homelike,  instead  of  hand 
some  architecturally.  Around  it  is  a  handsome  lawn, 
closely  cropped,  and  just  at  present  beautiful  with  the 
green  of  early  summer.  Shade  trees  are  scattered  over  it, 
and  bushes  and  flowers  tastefully  decorate  it  here  and  there. 
Opposite  is  the  old  State  House,  where  Mr.  Elaine,  before 
the  war,  served  in  the  Legislature,  and  where  he  won  his 
first  distinction. 

Mr.  Elaine  receives  his  visitors  sometimes  in  the  large  and 
elegant  library,  where  most  of  his  time  is  spent,  though  he 
is  not  so  systematic  that  his  hours  or  place  of  study  may  not 
be  disturbed  by  callers,  for  he  delights  in  company,  in  which 
he  is  a  charming  talker  and  courteous  listener.  The  recep 
tion-room,  where  most  of  his  visitors  are  shown,  is  at  the 
right  of  the  large  hall.  Behind  it,  with  windows  opening 
on  the  lawn,  is  the  dining-room.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
hall  the  parlors,  handsomely  furnished  and  pleasant,  occupy 
the  front  of  the  house.  In  the  extension  back  of  them  is 
Mr.  Elaine's  library .  Nearly  straight  across  from  the  library 
doorway  is  another  library,  occupied  just  as  often  and  hav- 

ng  much  the  same  look  of  a  general  literary  workshop. 
Mr.  Elaine  occupies  no  one  place  in  his  work.  At  one  hour 
be  may  be  found  at  one  of  his  desks ;  at  another  he  is  some 
place  else,  working  as  vigorously  as  before.  His  reception- 
room  is  even  made  to  do  service  in  his  habit  of  working 

very  place,  and  in  the  early  morning  often  it  is.  almost  im 
passable  from  the  piles  of  letters  and  papers  spread  upon 
the  floor. 


262  LIFK    AND    riJBLIC    SKRVICES    OF 

Mr.  Blaine  is  a  man  of  great  charity,  which  he  performs 
without  ostentation,  and  most  generally  disguises  his  charit 
able  acts  to  avoid  public  mention  of  them.  Several  institu 
tions  of  his  State  have  received  munificent  benefactions 
from  him,  and  for  relievingthe  poor  of  Augusta  he  is  famous. 
The  generous  nature  which  he  inherited,  and  has  since 
cultivated,  is  not  confined  within  narrow  channels,  but 
broad-spreading  and  thoroughly  humanitarian,  regardless  of 
creed  or  profession.  Though  Mr.  Blaine  is  a  Congrega- 
tionalist,  he  contributes  with  a  liberal  hand  toother  denomi 
nations,  and  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  there  has  not 
been  a  church  erected  in  his  town  during  the  past  twenty 
years  but  what  has  been  largely  assisted  by  his  contributions. 
But  not  only  to  churches  do  his  benefactions  extend,  for  the 
pale  face  of  poverty  and  distres  finds  in  his  heart  an  ever- 
throbbing  impulse  to  give  relief,  and  a  generous  hand  to 
provide  comforts.  But  Blaine  is  not  a  bigot,  but  a  Christ- 
tian,  who  believes  not  only  in  precept,  but  example  as  well. 


JAMES   G.    BLAlNfi.  263 


CHAPTEE  XXVIII. 

It  is  scarcely  less  than  astonishing  with  what  total  disre 
gard  politicians  review  the  private  life  of  candidates,  mak 
ing  public  investigations  of  their  religion,  domestic  influ 
ences,  and  all  the  sacred  surroundings  of  family  privacies. 
Should  these  invasions  fail  to  reveal  some  skeleton  of  dis 
cord  or  inconsistency,  the  creatures  who  thus  violate  all 
honor  and  decorum  never  fail  to  report  some  obliquity 
which  they  clothe  with  hideous  aspect,  and  send  the  imp 
upon  a  mission  of  evil. 

The  report  is  flaunted  that  Mr.  Elaine  is  a  Catholic.  Well, 
if  he  were  a  Catholic,  does  it  follow  that  his  religion  is 
proof  of  his  terpitude?  The  cry  is  raised,  too,  that  he  is  a 
prohibitionist.  Well,  does  the  sentiment  of  prohibition 
imply  that  he  is  a  dishonest  man,  and  unworthy  to  hold  the 
position  of  President?  Are  there  not  thousands  of  good, 
earnest,  honest  Catholics,  and  are  there  not  thousands  of 
consciencious  Christian  prohibitionists?  The  President  of 
this  nation  cannot  legislate  in  favor  of  Catholicism  or  pro 
hibition.  Geo.  Washington  was  a  High  Church  Episcopa 
lian,  and  yet,  as  President,  he  never  increased  either  the 
membership  or  influence  of  that  church.  Lincoln  was  an 
Agnostic,  but  he  never  talked  Agnosticism  while  in  the 
Executive  office,  having  always  respect  and  regard  for  popu 
lar  religious  sentiment.  Gen.  Grant  is  a  Methodist,  but 
that  church  never  profited  particularly  while  he  was  Presi 
dent.  And  so  we  have  Prohibitionists,  Spiritualists,  and 
other  ists  and  isms,  but  none  of  them  can  thrive  by  reason 
of  the  election  of  a  President  who  adheres  to  their  doctrine. 


2()4  Lll'H    AND    PUBLIC    SEliVlCKS    <>1 

But  Mr.  Blainc  is  neither  a  Catholic  nor  a  Prohibitionist, 
which  makes  him  neither  better  nor  worse  than  if  he  were 
both.  His  mother  was  a  Catholic,  and  Mr.  Elaine  has  too 
much  respect  for  the  memory  of  a  loving,  generous,  blessed 
mother,  to  decry  the  faith  in  which  she  died.  This  is  but 
another  evidence  of  his  chivalrous  manhood.  His  own  ad 
herence  is  to  Congregationalism,  which  is  only  a  mild  type 
of  Presbyterianism.  He  is  considerate  enough,  however, 
to  acknowledge  that  his  mother's  faith  may  have  been  the 
correct  one,  while  believing  that,  as  a  Congregationalist,  he 
comes  nearer  to  fulfilling  such  obedience  as  he  conceives  is 
enjoined  by  his  Bible. 

Speaking  of  the  statement  that  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic 
in  religion,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  to  a  friend  in  1870: 

"The  charge  is  very  provoking,  considering  that  the 
motive  that  inspires  it,  and  very  exasperating  when  I  see  it 
connived  at,  if  not,  in  fact,  originated  by  men  who  sat  with 
me  in  a  Presbyterian  Bible  class.  The  charge  is  part  and 
parcel  of  the  tactics  of  the  Cameron  gang  to  rob  me  of  the 
Pennsylvania  delegates,  when,  in  fact,  four-fifths  of  the 
Republicans  of  the  State  desire  my  nomination." 

Concerning  the  religious  faith  of  his  family  and  his  own 
attitude  in  religious  matters,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  in  later  life — 
March  10,  1876,  as  follows: 

"My  ancestors  on  my  father's  side,  were,  as  you  know, 
always  identified  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  they 
were  prominent  and  honored  in  the  old  colony  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  But  I  will  never  consent  to  make  any  public  decla 
ration  upon  the  subject,  and  for  two  reasons :  First,  because  I 
abhor  the  introduction  of  anything  that  looks  like  a  religious 
test  or  qualification  for  office  in  a  republic  where  perfect  free 
dom  of  conscience  is  the  birthright  of  every  citizen  ;  and, 
second,  because  my  mother  was  a  devoted  Catholic.  I  would 
not  for  a  thousand  Presidencies  speak  a  disrespectful  word 


JAMES   G.    BLAINE.  2  07 

of  my  mother's  religion,  and  no  pressure  will  draw  me  into 
any  avowal  of  hostility  or  unfriendliness  to  Catholics, 
though  I  have  never  received,  and  do  not  expect,  any  politi 
cal  support  from  them.'' 

The  Kennebec  Journal  (Augusta,  Me.)  about  this  time 
said,  on  the  same  subject,  that  "Mr.  Blaine  has  been  for 
nearly  twenty  years  a  consistent  member  of  the  Orthodox 
Congregational  Church,  in  this,  the  city  of  his  home.  Or 
thodox  Congregationalism,  in  Maine,  is  precisely  the  same 
creed  as  Presbyterianism  in  Pennsylvania." 

The  following  interview  appeared  in  the  Three  Towns, 
a  weekly  journal  published  in  Brownsville,  Mr.  Elaine's 
birthplace,  April  llth,  '84: 

Having  heard  various  statements  as  to  the  religious  affilia 
tions  of  Hon.  James  G.  Blaine,  and,  in  particular,  Father 
Lambert's  statement  as  to  his  name  being  on  the  baptismal 
register  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Brownsville,  a  Three  Towns 
reporter  waited  on  Rev.  Thos.  McEnrue,the  present  incum 
bent  of  the  parish,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the  truth,  so 
far  as  he  knew.  Although  interrupted  in  a  post-prandial 
nap,  the  genial  priest  gave  the  reporter  a  most  hospitable 
welcome,  and  expressed  his  willingness  to  give  him  any 
information  he  possessed.  '"But,"'  added  he,  "'I  am  afraid 
I  do  not  possess  any.  The  register  of  that  time  was  removed 
by  Father  McGuire,  and,  I  think,  was  burned  in  the  fire  at 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  Pittsburg.  Certainly  it  is  not  here, 
and  I  think  it  is  not  in  existence." 

"You  have  no  information  from  other  sources  on  the 
subject?" 

"'  None.  Of  course  you  know  that  Mr.  Blaine's  mother 
was  a  staunch  member  of  the  church?  " 

"  Yes,  I  know  that.     What  about  the  father?  " 

"'  From  all  that  I  can  learn,  he  was  a  man  indifferent  to 
religious  affairs,  but  he  became  a  communicant  about  five 
years  before  his  death." 

"  Did  James  G.  Blaine  ever  show  his  appreciation  of  the 
church  here  by  contributing  anything  to  it  in  any  way  ? ' ' 


268  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"*  Not  to  my  knowledge/' 

The  Rev.  E.  R.  Donahue,  pastor  of  the  Eighth  Presby 
terian  Church,  of  Pittsburg,  tells  the  following  story  of 
how  he  learned  that  Mr.  Elaine  was  not  a  Catholic: 

"  It  was  on  a  Pan-handle  train,  on  my  way  out  to  Wash 
ington,"  said  he.  "It  was  commencement  time,  and  I 
was  going  to  attend  a  re-union  of  my  class.  I  happened  to 
occupy  a  seat  with  a  distinguished-looking  man,  whose 
appearance  attracted  me  the  moment  I  saw  him.  He  was 
an  entire  stranger  to  me.  I  had  never  seen  him  before; 
as  we  rode  along  we  got  to  talking.  *  You  are  a  native  of 
Washington  county?'  he  said.  I  told  him  that  I  was,  and 
he  added,  *  I  thought  I  recognized  your  face.  If  I  am  not 
mistaken,  I  knew  your  father,'  and  then  he  inquired  my 
name.  I  told  him,  and  he  said  that  he  knew  my  father  well. 

"  He  described  his  appearance  to  me,  and  said  that  he 
was  a  tall  and  remarkably  straight  man.  This  excited  my 
curiosity;  I  asked  him  what  his  name  was,  and  found  for 
the  first  time  that  I  was  talking  to  James  G.  Elaine.  My 
father  was  County  Commissioner  in  Washington  county  at 
the  time  when  his  father  was  Prothonotary.  They  had  an 
office  adjoining  each  other  in  the  same  building,  and  were 
fast  friends.  My  father  was  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  of  which  Dr.  Stockton,  one  of  the  finest  preachers 
in  Washington  county,  was  pastor.  Mr.  Eln.ine  spoke  of 
Dr.  Stockton,  and  asked  me  if  he  was  still  living.  He  in 
quired  after  a  number  of  the  old  families,  and  manifested  a 
great  curiosity  to  know  whether  the  people  still  stuck  to  the 
old  forms  of  worship  and  the  lines  of  faith  and  doctrines 
that  were  held  when  he  was  a  boy.  In  talking  about  this,  he 
showed  a  great  familiarity  with  the  church  and  its  doctrines 
and  I  inferred  that  he  must  have  made  a  study  of  it  when 
he  was  a  boy.  I  told  him  that  the  people  were  strict  as 
ever  in  their  belief. 

"After  a  while  I  asked  him  if  he  was  a  Presbyterian, 
lie  replied,  'Yes,  I  am  a  Presbyterian  in  faith,  but  not  in 
name.  'My  wife  and  I  are  members  of  the  Congregational 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  209 

Church  in  Maine,  which  pratically  has  the  same  doctrine 
and  system  as  the  Presbyterian  Church.'  We  talked  for 
some  time  fully  and  freely,  and  he  expressed  himself  in  the 
clearest  and  most  unequivocal  terms." 

"'You  won't  dispute  my  orthodoxy,'  he  said,  'when  I  tell 
you  I  have  named  my  son  here  after  Dr.  Emmons,'  and  he 
introduced  me  to  his  two  sons  who  were  in  the  next  seat. 

*'At  that  time  there  was  a  warm  discussion  about  eternal 
punishment.  Cannon  Farrar's  book  on  'Eternal  Hope'  had 
just  appeared,  and  Mr.  Elaine  was  very  much  interested  in 
it.  'You  may  possibly  have  an  idea,'  he  said,  'that  we  in 
Washington,  because  we  are  engaged  in  politics,  are  inter 
ested  only  in  temporal  and  worldly  affairs,  but  it  is  not  so. 
It  would  surprise  you  to  know  how  much  questions  of  this 
kind  are  studied  there,  and  studied  seriously  too.  If  there 
is  anything  in  which  I  feel  as  if  I  am  off  the  original  lines 
it  is  in  this:  I  think  there  is  a  ground  for  hope  that  there 
will  be  restitution  in  the  far  future  for  those  who  are  not 
saved." 

The  incontrovertible  testimony  which  is  here  given,  com 
pletely  disproving  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Elaine's  Catholi 
cism,  will  hardly  prevent  a  continued  circulation  of  the  re 
port,  for  since  it  was  conceived  in  the  brain  of  enmity  it 
will  continue  to  be  promulgated  by  the  tongue  of  deceit  and 
slander.  I  am  led  to  this  belief  by  the  fact  that  all  the 
charges  of  corruption  made  against  him  have  been  met  by 
as  thorough  disproof,  and  yet  the  opposition  press  is  still 
gorged  with  repetitions  of  the  same  outrageous  false 
hoods.  There  is  nothing  negtative  about  Mr.  Elaine.  You 
cannot  remain  neutral  with  him.  You  are  either  very 
much  for  him  or  very  much  against  him.  Even  his  enemies 
who  fight  him  the  hardest  admire  his  brilliant  abilities. 

O 

Mr.  Elaine  is  himself  a  fighter  who  thrives  on  opposition. 

As  a  conversationalist   Mr.  Elaine  has  few  equals.     He 

has  a  keen  appreciation   of  fun,  and  can  tell  a  story  with  a 


270  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

wonderful  simplicity.  There  is  no  dragging  prelude,  no 
verbose  details  preceding  a  stupid  finale.  The  story  is 
presented  always  dramatically  and  fired  almost  as  if  from  a 
gun  when  the  point  is  reached.  Mr.  Elaine's  ability  to  en 
tertain  a  private  circle  as  well  as  a  public  audience  shows 
that  he  has  great  powers  as  an  actor. 

The  dinner-table  in  the  Elaine  house  is  the  place  where 
the  gayest  of  good-natured  chaff  rules.  From  6  to  8  the 
dinner  speeds  undercover  of  running  talk  upon  the  incidents 
of  the  day.  Mr.  Elaine  is  very  happy  in  his  family.  None 
of  his  children  appear  to  regard  him  as  more  than  a  big 
brother.  Unless  called  out  by  a  dinner  or  some  social 
gathering,  Mr.  Elaine  is  always  at  home.  He  belongs  to 
no  club,  and  keeps  more  to  himself  than  a  man  of  his  so 
cial  instincts  might  be  expected  to  do.  He  does  not  even 
play  the  game  of  poker,  which  is  so  general  an  accomplish 
ment  with  public  men.  He  has  nothing  of  the  reputation 
of  a  Puritan,  but  in  reality  his  private  life  is  as  irreproach 
able  as  the  most  rigid  moralist  could  ask.  He  is  one  of  the 
few  men  in  public  life  whose  name  has  never  been  coupled 
in  the  most  indirect  way  with  any  intrigues  with  women. 
Out  in  society  he  is  a  gallant  admirer  of  the  fair  sex,  but 
there  is  yet  to  be  breathed  against  him  the  first  word  of 
scandal  in  this  direction.  He  is  a  very  temperate  man  at 
the  table.  He  occasionally  drinks  a  glass  of  wine,  but  he 
never  joined  the  whiskey-drinking  ranks  in  either  the  House 
or  the  Senate. 

Mr.  Elaine  once  said  to  a  visitor  that  he  was  richer  than 
any  of  the  so-called  millionaires  of  the  day,  because  he  had 
all  that  he  wanted.  He  is  not  an  avaricious  man.  He  is 
not  niggardly  in  his  expenditures,  neither  is  he  lavish.  He 
seems  to  have  joined  to  the  liberal  and  hospitable  free- 


STEPHEN   B.   ELKINS. 
'Mr.  Maine's  most  effective  supporter  in  the  Chicago  Convention.) 


JAMES    O.    BLAINfi. 

handedness  of  the  West  the  conservative  carefulness  of  the 
East.  His  style  of  living  at  Washington  has  always  been 
comfortable,  never  extravagant.  His  carriages  and  his 
horses  would  never  attract  notice  anywhere,  while  at  the 
same  time  they  are  plenty  good  enough  for  any  gentleman 
to  use.  In  his  manners,  Mr.  Elaine  is  essentinlly  a  demo 
crat.  He  never  yet  in  any  of  the  various  periods  of  his 
career  has  shown  any  pride  of  place. 

The  Rev.  J.  H.  Ecob,  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Elaine's, 
for  ten  years  pastor  of  the  church  in  Augusta  which  Mr. 
Elaine  attends,  though  now  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  has  written 
for  general  publication  the  following  tribute  to  the  noble 
qualities  of  the  Republican  standard  bearer: 

"I  have  known  Mr.  Elaine  since  1872.  During  nearly 
ten  years  of  that  time  I  was  pastor  of  the  church  in  Augusta 
of  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elaine  are  members.  The  satisfac 
tion  I  take  in  his  nomination  is  based  upon  such  knowledge 
of  him  as  only  a  pastor  can  gain.  I  believe  that  I  am  too 
true  a  Republican,  and  I  know  that  my  conception  of  citi 
zenship  is  too  high,  to  permit  me  to  ratify  the  exaltation  of 
any  man  whose  character  has  not  the  true  ring.  I  have  been 
very  near  to  Mr.  Elaine,  not  only  in  the  most  trying  political 
crises,  but  in  the  sharper  trial  of  great  grief  in  the  house 
hold,  and  have  never  yet  detected  a  false  note.  I  would  not 
be  understood  as  avowing  too  much  for  human  nature.  I 
mean  that  as  I  have  known  him  he  has  stood  loyally  by  his 
convictions;  that  his  word  has  always  had  back  of  it  a  clear 
purpose,  and  that  purpose  has  always  been  worthy  of  the 
highest  manhood.  In  his  house  he  was  always  the  soul  of 
geniality  and  good  heart.  It  was  always  summer  in  that 
house,  whatever  the  Maine  winter  might  be  without.  And 
not  only  his  'rich  neighbors  and  kinsmen'  welcomed  him 
home,  but  a  long  line  of  the  poor  hailed  the  return  of  that 
family  as  a  special  Providence.  In  the  church  he  is  honored 
and  beloved.  The  good  old  New  England  custom  of  church- 


274  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

going  with  all  the  guests  is  enforced  strictly  in  the  Blain* 
household.  Whoever  is  under  his  roof,  from  Presi 
dent  down,  is  expected  to  be  with  the  family  at  church 
Fair  weather  or  foul,  those  pews  were  always  well  filled 
Not  only  his  presence  on  Sabbath  but  his  influence,  his  wist 
counsels,  his  purse  are  freely  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the 
noble  Old  South  Church  of  Augusta.  The  hold  which  Mr, 
Elaine  has  maintained  upon  the  hearts  of  such  great  num 
bers  of  his  countrymen  is  not  sufficiently  explained  by  bril 
liant  gifts  or  magnetism ;  the  secret  lies  in  his  generous, 
manly,  Christian  character.  Those  who  have  known  him 
best  are  not  surprised  that  his  friends  all  over  the  country 
have  been  determined  that  he  should  secure  the  highest 
honor  within  their  gift.  It  is  because  they  believe  in  him, 
The  office  has  sought  the  man,  the  political  papers  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  I  have  absolute  knowledge  that 
in  1880  he  did  not  lift  a  finger  to  influence  the  Convention. 
He  was  quietly  at  home  devoting  himself  to  his  business  af 
fairs  and  steadfastly  refused  even  the  entreaties  of  his  own 
family  to  interest  himself  in  behalf  of  the  nomination.  T, 
for  one,  shall  put  mv  conscience  into  my  vote  next  Novem 
ber." 


G.  ELAINE.  27/5 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Mr.  Elaine  is  now  in  the  prime  of  a  vigorous  manhood.  He 
is  54  years  of  age.  His  once  shattered  health  is  completely 
restored.  His  eyes  are  now  as  keen  and  clear  as  when  he 
was  an  impulsive,  mischievous  boy,  while  his  voice  is  as 
ringing,  deep  and  strong  as  in  his  palmiest  days  as  an  orator. 
Retired  from  active  politics  now  for  over  two  years,  he  has 
gained  by  the  change.  Instead  of  dropping  into  the  obscurity 
where  falls  the  average  public  man  relegated  to  private  life, 
he  has  held  his  own  in  the  public  mind  as  no  statesman  ever 
has  before,  without  the  artificial  aid  of  official  position. 
Instead  of  resting  in  his  privacy,  Mr.  Elaine,  with  the  energy 
of  genius,  immediately  discovered  a  new  field  to  conquer. 
In  the  hard  and  untried  path  of  literature  he  has  accom 
plished,  in  the  brief  period  of  one  year,  as  brilliant  a  success 
as  has  ever  fallen  to  his  lot  in  politics. 

In  April  last  Mr.  Elaine  presented  to  the  public  the  first 
volume  of  his  4<  Twenty  Years  of  Congress,"  a  work  that  is 
to  cover,  when  completed,  the  period  from  Lincoln  to  Gar- 
field,  with  a  review  of  the  events  which  led  to  the  political 
revolution  of  1860.  This  work  is  in  fact  a  biography  of 
the  American  people,  everything — abstract  questions  and 
individuals — being  subordinated  in  the  effort  to  produce  a 
clear  and  strong  picture  of  the  life  of  the  nation.  The 
thoughts  of  the  people,  as  they  varied  from  year  to  year, 
their  times  of  indecision  and  darkness,  of  swift  insight  and 
heroic  resolution ;  their  days  of  timidity  and  weak  compro 
mising  with  wrong,  and  their  grand  endurance  and  unflinch- 


27()  LIFE    AND    1'LBLU:    SERVICES    OF 

ing  fidelity  when  the  crisis  at  last  brought  duty  clearly  before 
them  ;  their  singular  sagacity  in  decisions  of  vital  moment — 
all  these  are  portrayed  in  Mr.  Blaine's  narrative,  with  clear 
ness  and  power.  The  story  he  tells  in  his  first  volume  is 
given  with  the  simplicity  and  compactness  of  a  trained 
journalist,  and  yet  with  sufficient  fullness  to  make  the 
picture  distinct  and  clear  in  almost  every  detail.  The  book 
is  as  easy  to  read  as  a  well-written  novel ;  it  is  clear  and 
interesting,  and  commands  the  attention  throughout,  the 
more  for  the  absence  of  anything  like  oratorical  display  or 
forensic  combativeness. 

In  its  main  features  Mr.  Blaine's  history  is  one  of  uni 
versal  value.  In  literary  polish  it  is  not  beyond  criticism, 
though  occasional  infelicities  of  expression  and  instances  of 
carelessness  do  not  outweigh  the  general  clearness  and  force 
of  style.  It  is  not  at  all  points  unerring  in  portraiture,  nor 
infallible  in  judgment,  though  the  writer's  impartiality  of 
spirit  and  desire  to  be  just,  are  conspicuous,  and  he  gives 
cogent  reasons  for  opinions  expressed.  But  in  broad  and 
comprehensive  appreciation  of  the  forces  by  which  the 
development  of  public  opinion  has  been  affected,  the  work 
is  one  of  great  merit.  The  arrangement  of  the  first  volume 
favors  the  compact  and  intelligent  treatment  of  a  many- 
sided  subject.  Chapters  I- VI II,  review  the  main  question 
from  which  grew  the  civil  war  and  the  political  revolution 
of  1860.  Many  of  the  questions  with  which  Congress  after 
ward  had  to  deal  could  not  have  been  treated  wisely  by 
lawgivers,  nor  intelligently  by  the  historian,  except  in  the 
light  of  the  double  conflict  between  the  slave  power  and 
anti-slavery,  hostile  political  forces.  By  careful  tracing  of 
the  causes  which  had  made  slavery  what  it  was,  and  public 
opinion  in  regard  to  slavery  what  it  was,  the  history  of  the 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  277 

war  is  rendered  far  more  compact  and  clear.  Closely  allied 
with  the  main  cause  of  war,  the  tariff  question  is  reviewed 
in  Chapter  IX.  Chapter  X  opens  with  the  election  of  I860, 
and  the  events  of  the  marvelous  history  "From  Lincoln  to 
Garfield  "  are  there  unfolded,  mainly  in  chronological  order. 
But  Chapters  XVIII  to  XIX  are  devoted  to  the  financial 
history  of  the  war,  the  levying  of  taxes  and  the  creation  of 
legal  tender  notes.  In  Chapter  XXIV  the  United  States 
banks  and  the  State  banks  of  the  anti-war  period  are  con 
trasted  with  the  National  banking  system,  and  its  creation 
is  described.  The  admission  of  West  Virginia  is  considered 
in  Chapter  XXI,  and  in  the  last  chapter,  XXII,  the  rela 
tions  between  the  United  States  and  foreign  powers  during 
the  war.  An  appendix  of  forty-four  pages  embraces  sta 
tistics  of  interest  and  value. 

Within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  White  House,  upon  the 
west  side  of  the  historic  Lafayette  Square,  Mr.  Blaine  spent 
the  winter.  He  occupied  Gen.  Marcy's  house,  a  plain,  sub 
stantial  brick,  with  a  bow- windowed  front  and  a  mansard 
roof.  It  is  the  same  row  once  occupied  by  Gen.  Sickles. 
The  second  story  of  this  house  is  Mr.  Elaine's  work-room. 
Its  front  windows  have  the  sun  during  the  early  part  of  the 
day.  It  is  a  very  informal-looking  work-room.  Across  the 
end  nearest  the  window  is  a  long  table,  littered  with  books 
and  papers,  in  about  the  order  one  would  find  upon  the  desk 
of  a  working  editor.  The  rest  of  the  furniture  is  that  of  a 
plain  bed-room,  for  this  working-room  by  day  is  the  sleep 
ing-room  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blaine  at  night.  Its  windows 
command  a  sweep  of  the  park,  and  also  take  in  a  glimpse  of 
the  White  House,  a  cool,  white  spot  in  the  landscape,  upon 
which  the  gaze  of  the  working  historian  has  often  dreamily 
rested  in  the  pauses  of  his  work. 


278  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Here  he  has  worked  with  his  secretary,  with  persistent 
energy,  absorbed  in  his  work.  Most  of  the  best  parts  of 
the  book  have  been  written  with  Mr.  Elaine's  own  hand. 
He  believes  that  dictation  can  be  only  successfully  employed 
for  pure  narrative,  and  that  to  compose  anything  in  the  way 
of  an  essay,  or  in  the  line  of  pure  thought,  to  attain  the 
higher  range  of  literature,  the  author  must  write  with  his 
own  hand,  if  he  is  seeking  to  create  a  work  which  is  to  live. 
Mr.  Blaine  has  worked  as  steadily  at  his  self-imposed  task 
as  ever  did  Anthony  Trollope  upon  his  daily  work,  though 
he  believes  that  the  writing  of  1,500  words  is  a  good  day's 
work.  More  than  this  he  has  not  averaged,  although  he  has 
at  times  spurted  up  to  the  limit  of  8,000  words,  with  the 
aid  of  his  secretaries.  His  average  day's  work  was  not 
more  than  an  ordinary  newspaper  column. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  was  first  retired  to  private  life,  he  thought 
some  of  going  back  to  his  old  editorial  work.  But  then  the 
cost  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper,  and  the  doubtful  possi 
bilities  connected  with  it,  made  him  hesitate.  He  thought 
also  of  a  political  weekly,  but  it  was  the  history  which  finally 
captured  his  mind.  With  the  modest  investment  required 
for  the  purchase  of  several  quarts  of  ink,  numerous  reams 
of  paper,  and  boxes  of  pens  and  the  labor  of  five  or  six 
hours  a  day,  for  nearly  two  years,  Mr.  Blaine  will  realize 
what,  even  in  these  days,  must  be  regarded  as  a  handsome 
fortune. 

The  work  upon  the  book  has  made  a  great  draft  upon 
Mr.  Blaine's^gphysical  resources,  but,  with  a  brief  vacation, 
he  has  gone  rapidly  to  work  upon  the  second  volume.  This  he 
will  have  completed  by  the  first  of  next  December,  notwith 
standing  the  attention  which  he  will  be  compelled  to  give  to 
the  campaign.  The  matter  for  this  second  volume  is  al- 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE,  279 

ready  far  advanced,  and  his  energetic  industry  will  no  doubt 
enable  him  to  keep  his  contract  with  his  publishers.  He 
has  found  a  strange  pleasure  in  writing  this  book.  He  has 
been  all  his  life,  since  his  college  days,  a  student  of  Ameri 
can  history.  There  is  no  man  in  public  or  private  life  to 
day  who  is  so  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  growth  and  prog 
ress  of  his  own  country  as  Mr.  Blaine.  His  memory  is  a  mar 
velous  one.  He  retains  without  difficulty  everything  that 
he  reads,  and  rarely  errs  in  his  historical  allusions.  It  is  a 
matter  of  great  pride  with  him  that  the  first  volume  of  his 
history  has  not  as  yet  had  any  of  its  facts  questioned.  It 
is  his  idea  that  a  man  who  writes  history  should  have  no 
other  object  than  the  honest  recital  of  the  facts  connected 
with  the  period  which  he  is  seeking  to  describe.  Where 
history  is  written  with  a  certain  object  in  view,  the  history 
itself  is  too  apt  to  be  colored  to  be  of  value  to  the  impartial 
student.  Mr.  Blaine  thinks  that  the  one  fault  of  the  bril 
liant  and  great  Macaulay's  History  of  England  is  that  it  was 
written  with  the  object  of  sustaining  the  Whig  party.  He 
has  tried  in  his  work  to  have  no  object  in.  view  beyond 
giving  an  impartial  record  of  the  period  covered  by  his  his 
tory.  Originally  he  had  an  idea  of  writing  his  memoirs. 
This  would  have  given  an  opportunity  for  a  closer  record  of 
personal  observation,  and  would  also  have  given  room  for  a 
lighter  vein  of  treatment.  With  his  strong  descriptive 
powers,  his  excellent  knowledge  of  men,  his  memory  for 
even  the  gossips  of  his  time,  his  memoirs  would  have  pos 
sessed  extraordinary  interest.  It  is  possible  that  Mr.  Blaine 
may  yet  write  such  a  book, 


280  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Social  accomplishments  are  an  inseparable  adjunct  to 
official  life  in  Washington,  and  since  the  mistress  of  the 
White  House  is  accorded  the  position  of  "  first  lady  in  the 
hind,"  Mrs.  Elaine's  qualifications  for  social  leadership, 
are  at  once  matters  for  consideration.  Since  Buchanan's 
administration  there  has  not  been  a  brilliant  lady  in  charge 
of  the  White  House;  indeed,  the  leaders  of  society  in 
Washington,  during  all  that  time,  have  either  been  the 
wives  of  Cabinet  officers  or  members  of  wealthy  families, 
who  court  prominence  and  buy  it  regardless  of  price.  To 
speak  unreservedly  and  honestly,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  Washington  society  has  become  emboldened  until  its 
proprieties  are  not  to  be  defined;  the  old-time  democratic 
etiquette  of  the  White  House  and  its  departmental  acces 
sories,  have  become  so  changed  that  now  none  but  dudes, 
dandies,  and  dainty  damsels  of  wealth  and  royal  manner 
isms  grace  receptions,  where  once  were  wont  to  gather  the 
wit  and  wisdom  of  our  really  noble  people. 

Mr.  Elaine  has  about  him  that  which  commands  respect 
from  all  classes;  his  social  relations  are  ^eminently  com 
mendable,  free  from  that  vapidity  which  now  distin 
guishes  and  un- Americanizes  Washington  society;  and  yet  he 
has  none  of  the  affectations  of  a  pedant.  In  short,  Mr. 
Elaine  and  his  amiable,  highly-cultured  wife,  are  the  ideal, 
old-time,  Borough  democrats.  Mr.  Elaine  is  one  of  the 
people,  ing  no  pre-eminence  to  himself,  one  whose 

administrate  annot  but  prove  most  wholesome  and  ele 
vating.  The  unobtrusive,  yet  dignified  ways  of  Mr.  Elaine, 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE.  283 

are  like  the  current  of  a  deep  stream,  bearing  richly  laden 
argosies  on  its  bosom,  as  compared  with  the  shallow,  bab 
bling,  social  brooklet  of  previous  administrations  which 
have  so  materially  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  an  aris 
tocracy  inimical  to  our  institutions. 

Mrs.  Elaine  is  a  lady  somewhat  retiring  in  disposition, 
and  disposed  to  have  comparatively  few  intimates,  but  this 
characteristic  is  very  becoming  to  a  President's  wife,  especi 
ally  so  to  Mrs.  Elaine,  who  is  dignified,  yet  courteous,  and 
a  queenly  woman,  with  no  trace  of  affectation.  Her  asso 
ciation  has,  from  infancy,  been  with  people  of  learning, 
and  she  was  given  every  advantage  that  was  obtainable  in 
her  school  days.  In  consequence  of  these  opportunities, 
she  became  a  lady  of  marked  grace  and  accomplishment, 
suited  to  the  society  of  the  intellectual,  rather  than  the 
fashionable.  As  mistress  of  the  White  House,  her  influence 
would  tend  to  the  elevation  of  Washington  society,  by  de 
stroying  the  manifestly  improper  permissibilities  which  now 
distinguish  it ;  she  would  reinstate  the  high  morale  which 
prevailed  before  the  war,  and  root  out  the  rude  importa 
tions  of  English  social  vulgarisms.  Mrs.  Elaine,  like  her 
husband,  is  a  thorough  American,  cherishing  our  institu 
tions,  and  having  no  ambition  to  either  court  the  favor  of 
royalty  or  to  adopt  the  pretensions  of  lordly  patricians. 

The  wives  of  the  two  Eepublican  candidates  for  Presi 
dent  and  Vice-President,  while  almost  the  opposite  to  each 
other  in  traits  of  character,  have  some  points  of  resem 
blance  in  appearance,  though  no  one  who  knew  either  would 
ever  mistake  one  for  the  other.  Both  have  perfectly  white 
hair,  and  thick  suits  of  it,  florid  complexions  and  about  the 
same  height  and  weight,  each  being  a  little  stout  but  with  a 
compact  and  stately  figure.  Apparently  they  are  near  the 


284  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

same  age.  Each  appears  to  advantage  in  a  crowd  of  other 
women  of  the  types  usually  met  in  society,  and  would 
probably  be  singled  out  by  strangers  as  ladies  of  special  dis 
tinction  from  their  bearing.  It  is  so  long  since  any  Vice- 
President  has  had  a  wife  that  many  in  Washington  have 
remarked  since  the  nomination,  how  valuable  an  assistant 
in  her  social  duties  Mrs.  Blaine  will  find  in  Mrs.  Logan,  if 
their  husbands  are  elected. 

If  Mrs.  Blaine  has  any  taste  for  politics  she  has  never 
shown  it  in  the  same  way  as  Mrs.  Logan  has  done,  by  taking 
an  active  part  personally  in  any  of  her  husband's  campaigns. 
She  invariably  takes  a  keen  interest  in  his  success,  and  shows 
great  disappointment  when  he  is  defeated,  but  always  in  a 
quiet  way,  never  discussing  either  situation  with  any  but 
intimate  friends.  Nor  does  she  ever  seek  to  add  to  her 
husband's  popularity  by  an  ingratiating  manner  in  society, 
while  Mrs.  Logan  never  loses  an  opportunity  to  make  friends 
by  her  suavity  of  manner  and  ready  conversation  with  all  who 
approach  her.  Mrs.  Blaine  appears  rather  to  disdain  to 
court  public  favor;  while  having  a  keen  wit,  she  never  hesi 
tates  to  use  the  sharp  weapons  of  sarcasm  in  social  inter 
course,  never  seeming  to  care  who  suffers  by  her  caustic 
criticisms,  being  as  free  in  making  them  on  those  in  high 
positions  as  on  any  others  of  whom  she  in  any  way  dis 
approves. 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  285 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

In  concluding  this  biography  of  James  G.  Blaine,  an  ex 
pression  of  opinion  from  his  townsmen,  who  have  known 
him  in  all  the  walks  of  public  and  private  life,  is  peculiarly 
appropriate.  It  has  been  said  of  old  that  "A  prophet  is  not 
without  honor  save  in  his  own  country,"  and  in  the  natural 
course  of  human  eccentricities,  which  gave  rise  to  the  say 
ing,  to  learn  the  faults  of  any  man  go  ask  his  neighbors. 
The  fact  indicative  of  Mr.  Elaine's  popularity  among  his 
own  people,  is  his  repeated  election  to  high  office  at  their 
hands,  and  though  he  was  called  to  legislative  councils  as 
early  as  1854,  by  the  votes  of  his  neighbors,  he  has  held 
office  almost  continually  since  that  time,  constantly  rising 
in  position  and  battling  through  fierce  issues  of  great 
moment,  yet  never  failing  of  victory.  He  has  been  an 
Ajax  in  every  combat,  and  always  overwhelmed  his  adver 
saries.  These  pointed  facts  attest  Mr.  Elaine's  popularity, 
the  great  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  those  most  familiar 
with  his  true  character,  and  the  real  heart-friendship  they 
bear  for  him. 

Hon.  J.  L.  Stephens,  of  Augusta,  Me.,  who  has  been  an 
intimate  of  Mr.  Elaine's  for  thirty  years,  and  for  many 
years  editor  of  the  Kennebec  Journal,  has  writen  me  the 
following,  complying  with  a  request  which  I  made  asking 
for  his  opinion  of  the  Maine  .statesman: 

"  I  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Blaine  in  1855,  and  very 
soon  after  he  became  partner  in  the  ownership  and  editor 
ship  of  the  Kennebec  Journal  He  at  once  struck  me  as  a 


28(3  LIFE    AKD   FUftLTC    SERVICES   OS* 

young  man  of  unusual  powers,  and  thoroughly  well  stocked 
in  that  information  necessary  to  a  successful  political  edi 
tor  and  leader.  He  was  exceedingly  well  versed  in  the  po 
litical  history  of  the  country,  and  on  general  affairs  of  the 
government,  and  in  all  those  details  of  civil  administration 
necessary  to  a  public  man  designing  to  play  an  important 
part  in  political  affairs.  He  showed  unusual  powers  of 
argument  and  logic.  His  style  of  writing  was  terse,  in 
cisive  and  strong.  In  dealing  with  the  propositions  as  ad 
vocated  by  his  own  party,  as  well  as  those  urged  by  his 
opponents,  he  had  a  remarkable  facility  for  going  at  once 
to  the  core  of  the  matter.  The  weak  points  in  an  adver 
sary  he  was  quick  to  perceive,  and  then  he  pushed  his  at 
tack  with  an  energy  and  boldness  which  always  character 
izes  a  successful  advocate  and  partizan  leader.  He  not 
only  early  exhibited  unusual  ability  in  special  directions, 
but  his  mind  was  characterized  by  great  facility  of  resource 
and  a  rapid  insight  into  the  different  points  and  issues 
coming  before  the  public  for  consideration.  The  advantages 
of  his  intellectual  discipline,  extensive  historical  reading, 
and  a  great  familiarity  with  the  best  authorities,  always 
gave  him  decided  advantage  in  whatever  controversy  he  en 
gaged  in.  He  read  a  large  list  of  newspaper  exchanges, 
and  availed  himself  of  the  best  articles  in  the  literary  re 
views  and  magazines,  with  great  rapidness  and  thorough 
ness.  He  would  find  out  the  best  there  was  in  the  chief 
editorials  of  a  number  of  newspapers  and  magazines  with 
more  rapidity  and  certainty  than  any  person  whose  acquaint 
ance  I  have  ever  shared.  He  had  n  very  happy  faculty, 
when  conversing  with  individuals  in  private,  or  with  a  lar 
ger  number  of  individuals  in  public,  o>f  relating  anecdotes, 
incidents  and  historical  facts,  which  illustrated,  enforced, 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  289 

and  made  interesting  his  conversation  and  his  arguments. 
He  was  always  a  favorite  with  the  employes  of  the  estab 
lishment,  and  with  those  persons  who  were  accustomed  to 
visit  newspaper  offices  who  desire  the  acquaintance  of 
editors.  Very  soon  after  I  made  his  acquaintance  I  was 
especially  struck  with  the  fact  that  he  very  rapidly  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  citizens,  from  the  beginning,  in  the 
different  sections  of  the  State;  and  when  he  had  once  seen 
faces  and  known  the  names  and  become  acquainted  with  their 
political  associations  and  tendencies,  he  always  remem 
bered  them  thereafter.  And  thus  he  was  enabled  very  soon 
to  have  a  large  number  of  personal  acquaintances  and 
friends  where  he  had  previously  been  a  stranger. 

His  belief  in  the  advocacy  of  the  principles  of  the  Kepub- 
lican  party,  and  of  its  organization  dates  from  his  first  en 
trance  into  the  State  as  a  permanent  resident,  late  in  1854. 
How  strongly  he  was  attached  to  the  leading  principle  of 
Republicanism  was  evinced  by  an  interesting  fact  which 
came  to  my  knowledge  in  1855.  It  was  at  the  period  when 
the  Free  State  men  of  Kansas  were  struggling  against  the 
border  ruffians  of  Missouri  for  the  establishment  of  free  in 
stitutions  in  the  territory  which  had  been  so  recently  opened 
to  the  slave  holders  and  their  agents,  by  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise.  It  was  at  the  time  when  the  Free 
State  men  deemed  it  necessary  to  go  in  private  to  their 
friends  in  New  England,  or  such  as  they  thought  might 
prove  friends  to  them,  to  obtain  pecuniary  assistance,  or 
perhaps  other  forms  of  sympathy  necessary  for  them  to  hold 
their  position  against  their  threatening,  armed,  and  audacious 
opponents.  One  of  those  agents  of  the  Free  State  Associa 
tion,  a  man  of  known  reputation,  came  to  Augusta,  and  sought 
counsel,  sympathy  and  aid  from  the  owners  and  editors  of 


290  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  Kennebec  Journal.  Mr.  Elaine  evinced  his  warm  interest 
in  the  contest  on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  and  with  prudence  and 
energy  contributed,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  to  the  assistance 
of  the  struggling  colonists  on  the  hotly  contested  plains  of 
Kansas.  The  same  readiness  and  boldness  with  which  he 
adapted  himself  to  that  exigency,  has  always  characterized 
his  advocacy  and  leadership  in  the  Republican  party  to  the 
present  time.  Bold  and  energetic  in  action,  his  course  was 
then,  as  it  has  been  since,  characterized  by  prudence,  care, 
and  good  judgment.  But  when  decision  was  once  reached, 
all  obstacles  in  the  path  of  success  were  obliged  to  give  way. 
How  completely  he  was  accustomed  to  be  absorbed  in  the 
duties  of  his  editorial  work,  was  often  shown  by  striking 
illustrations.  His  pockets  were  crowded  with  numerous 
letters,  rapidly  read,  and  their  import  quickly  comprehend 
ed  ;  his  hands  and  hat  full  of  newspapers  and  clippings,  he  was 
a  complete  specimen  of  a  man  thoroughly  in  earnret  in 
whatever  enlisted  his  attention.  To  a  person  partially 
acquainted  with  him  in  the  earlier  years  of  my  association 
with  him,  he  often  seemed  a  person  of  impulse  and  enthusi 
asm,  not  always  carefully  directed.  But  those  really  un 
derstanding  him  knew  well  that  his  energy  and  seeming 
impetuosity  were  directed  by  a  well  considered  and  carefully 
balanced  determination.  He  rapidly  looked  on  all  sides  of 
a  question  and  saw  at  once  and  aimed  directly  at  the  bull's 
eye  of  common  sense  and  practical  expediency.  He  early 
struck  me  as  a  gentleman  who  would  have  succeeded  in  lit 
erature  had  he  devoted  himself  to  it  exclusively,  especially  as 
a  writer  of  historical  essays  and  more  elaborate  works  in  his 
tory  and  general  literature.  His  ready  wit,  his  interesting 
stones  and  anecdotes,  his  keen  appreciation  of  what  most 


JAMES    C.    BLAINE.  291 

men  arc  thinking  of,  were  constantly  illustrated  in  various 
ways. 

His  personal  magnetism  was  spontaneous,  and  as  natural 
as  the  currents  of  air,  or  the  flowing  waters  of  the  stream. 
I  am  safe  in  saying  that  all  intelligent  persons  in  the  im 
mediate  vicinity  of  his  home,  in  the  county  and  State  in 
which  he  has  resided  for  nearly  thirty  years,  would  say  that 
he  has  exhibited  a  constant  growth  in  till  the  appointments 
which  qualify  a  man  for  distinction  and  leadership  of  men, 
and  successful  statesmanship. 

It  is  an  important  and  interesting  fact  that  those  who 
know  him  best  and  have  seen  him  most  in  private  life,  have 
been,  and  are,  as  a  rule,  the  most  strongly  attached  to 
him." 

The  following  is  a  letter  received  from  Mr.  Joseph  A. 
Homan,  Esq.,  one  of  Augusta's  most  prominent  citizens, 
and,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  the  next  door 
neighbor  of  Mr.  Blaine: 

"  I  first  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  fall  of 
1853.  I  met  him,  a  young,  tall  and  slightly  built  man,  in 
the  store  of  Mr.  Sylvanus  Caldwell,  a  cousin  of  Mrs.  Blaine. 
He  had  recently  come  with  his  wife  to  this  State,  and  was 
not  then  engaged  in  any  particular  business.  My  memory 
of  him,  as  I  first  met  him,  is  that  he  was  remarkably  keen 
and  comprehensive  in  his  knowledge  of  public  and  political 
affairs,  and  of  public  men.  He  had  had  some  excellent  op 
portunities  for  becoming  acquainted  with  public  men  of  the 
Southern  and  Middle  States. 

His  knowledge  at  that  time  was  remarkable.  It  was  a 
characteristic  of  Mr.  Blaine,  always  from  my  earliest  knowl 
edge  of  him,  that  he  was  remarkable  in  weighing  and  meas 
uring  men.  His  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  country, 


202  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

particularly  its  political  history,  was  wonderful  in  a  man  of 
his  years.  He  remained  in  Augusta.  The  following  year 
he  became  connected  with  the  Kennebec  Journal  as  pro 
prietor  and  editor.  From  the  first  number  of  the  Journal 
that  he  edited,  it  was  evident  that  a  strong  hand  held  the 
editorial  pen.  He  was  keen  and  sharp  in  his  criticisms  of 
the  men  and  policy  of  the  Democratic  party.  The  paper 
was  then  a  Whig  paper.  He  had  been  born  and  educated 
in  the  Whig  faith  and  was  a  strong  partizan.  He  showed 
a  remarkable  ability  in  carrying  on  an  aggressive  warfare 
against  the  principles  and  policy  of  the  Democratic  party. 
He  became  very  popular,  especially  among  the  young  men 
of  his  party.  He  was  noted  for  his  readiness  in  conversa 
tion,  and  evinced  a  wonderful  knowledge  of  the  subjects  on 
wlii eh  he  would  write  in  the  paper.  He  soon  became  an  in 
fluential  man  in  the  party  in  the  State.  In  1856  Mr.  Blninc 
was  a  delegate  to  the  first  National  Republican  Convention, 
held  in  Philadelphia,  which  nominated  John  C.  Fremont 
for  the  Presidency.  On  his  return  to  Augusta,  after  the 
Convention,  a  ratification  meeting  was  held  in  Meonian  Hall. 
He  was  reluctantly  persuaded  to  appear  in  the  meeting  and 
make  a  report  of  the  proceedings.  He  then  had  never 
made  a  public  speech  in  his  life,  notwithstanding  his  readi 
ness  in  conversation,  perfect  command  of  language  and 
every  qualification  required  by  a  good  speaker. 

He  seemed  to  have  a  fear  of  the  idea  of  addressing  an  au 
dience.  After  much  persuasion,  he  consented  to  do  so.  As 
he  rose  to  speak  he  was  in  such  a  state  of  perturbation  and 
embarrassment  that  it  was  some  moments  before  he  was 
able  to  command  himself  so  as  to  speak.  From  the  mo 
ment,  however,  that  he  got  possession  of  his  voice  he  con 
tinued,  and  made  one  of  the  finest  speeches  he  ever  made  in 


JAMKS    CJ.    15LAINE.  293 

his  life,  showing  then  marked  promise  of  a  public  speaker. 
Another  fact  connected  with  his  membership  of  that  National 
Convention  was,  that  although  a  young  man,  and  compara 
tively  unknown,  he  was  made  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Convention.  He  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  in  1858,  and 
was  re-elected  for  three  successive  terms  afterward,  two  of 
which  he  was  Speaker  of  the  House. 

In  the  entire  history  of  the  Maine  Legislature,  so  far  as  I 
remember  it,  and  my  acquaintance  with  it  extends  over  a 
period  of  forty-seven  years,  there  was  never  so  much  talent 
in  both  parties  as  was  displayed  in  the  Legislatures  at  that 
time.  It  was  upon  the  eve  of  the  war,  and  all  the  great 
questions  that  divided  the  parties  were  warmly  discussed 
upon  the  floor  of  the  House.  In  those  discussions,  Mr. 
Elaine  was  pre-eminent.  No  other  man  in  the  Republican 
party  loomed  up  so  strongly  and  so  grandly  upon  the  floor 
of  the  House  as  Mr.  Elaine.  In  the  debates  with  the 
strongest  and  best  men  of  the  Republican  party,  he  was  re 
markably  successful,  and  always  came  out  triumphant  in 
the  debate,  thus  confirming  the  impressions  made  by  his 
maiden  effort  in  1856,  of  distinguished  ability. 

When  the  war  broke  out  he  was  one  of  the  most  active 
men  in  the  State  to  support  the  government,  and  in  arous 
ing  public  sentiment  in  support  of  the  war.  As  a  man,  a 
neighbor  and  a  friend  he  had  a  very  generous  nature,  and 
no  appeal  was  ever  made  to  him  for  assistance  in  any  benev 
olent  enterprise  that  he  did  not  readily  respond,  to  the 
extent  of  his  means.  No  person,  however  humble,  ever 
approached  him  without  a  perfect  confidence  that  he  was 
heard  in  any  matter  he  wanted  to  lay  before  him,  and  he 
always  helped  them  when  it  lay  in  his  power  to  do  so.  He 
was  a  man  to  whom  all  seemed  attached  with  whom  he 


294  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

came  in  contact.  Not,  apparently,  from  any  design  or  pur 
pose  of  making  friends  for  any-  ulterior  use,  but  rather 
because  his  nature  was  kindly  and  sympathetic  to  others. 

He  was  ready  to  assist  in  the  various  church  enterprises, 
not  only  in  his  own  church,  but  in  those  of  various  denomi 
nations  ;  his  purse  was  always  ready  and  open.  His  fond 
ness  for  his  children  was  remarkable,  and  he  spent  rnuch  of 
his  time  with  them.  They  seemed  to  be  an  unceasing  source 
of  delight  to  him,  and  their  presence  an  agreeable  relief 
from  his  heavier  and  graver  cares  and  work. 

As  an  instance  of  the  unobtrusive  way  in  which  he  assisted 
others,  I  might  mention  an  incident.  A  relative  of  Mrs. 
Elaine's  was  left  a  widow,  with  nine  children,  and  small 
means.  Almost  the  only  property  she  had  left  was  a  house 
on  which  was  a  mortgage  of  three  hundred  dollars.  Mr. 
Elaine  paid  the  mortgage,  and  sent  the  canceled  document 
to  her  anonymously,  and  it  was  years  after  before  she 
ever  knew  who  had  done  the  generous  deed  that  enabled 
her  to  retain  possession  of  the  house. 

There  is  much  of  the  child  nature  about  Mr.  Elaine. 
Sometimes  in  feelings  and  tastes  he  seems  much  like  one. 
Then,  again,  as  weighty  themes  claim  his  attention,  he  is  a 
great  intellectual  giant. 

On  the  day  of  his  nomination,  before  the  news  came,  he 
called  into  the  house  of  one  of  his  neighbors,  and  remained 
nearly  an  hour  and  a  half,  relating  incidents  of  his  life, 
apparently  unconcerned  in  relation  to  the  way  the  conven 
tion  was  going. 

Many  of  them  were  suggested  by  the  situation  just  at 
that  time.  Some  of  them  were  concerning  the  early  part 
of  his  life  when,  single-handed,  he  commenced  without 
patronage  to  make  his  way  in  the  world. 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  295 

He  seemed  to  be  entirely  free  from  any  care,  trouble  or 
anxiety  concerning  the  result  of  the  Convention.  In  fact, 
for  days  before  the  Convention,  when  I  would  talk  with  him 
more  or  less  about  the  matter,  he  did  not  seem  to  care  to 
discuss  it  particularly.  He  said  to  me,  <  I  am  in  a  condi 
tion  of  mind  where  whatever  happens,  I  am  content.  I 
have  been  for  several  years  out  of  political  life.  I  have 
had  all  reasonable  ambition  gratified  in  my  life,  and  I  can 
now  say  that  I  have  no  desire  and  no  ambition  for  the  Presi 
dency.  I  have  been  engaged  for  the  last  year  in  another 
kind  of  work  which  has  filled  my  time  and  heart.  I  have 
adjusted  myself  to  the  work,  and  it  has  become  so  pleasant 
and  agreeable  that  it  would  be  a  wrench  for  me  to  break 
away  from  it,  and  again  enter  political  life.  If  the  nomi 
nation  comes  to  me,  it  comes  unsought,  and  without  any 
effort  whatever  on  my  part.  I  determined  from  the  first 
that  I  would  take  no  part  whatever  in  it,  and  steadily  re 
fuse  my  strongest  and  best  friends  any  co-operation  and 
advice  whatever  in  regard  to  my  candidacy  for  the  Presi 
dency.' 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  of  the  nomination,  I  was 
with  him  until  the  news  was  received.  We  were  on  the 
lawn  with  Mrs.  Blaine  and  the  children,  and  Miss  Dodge. 
During  that  time  he  was  perfectly  cool  and  calm,  apparently 
free  from  any  anxiety  and  concern.  He  noted  the  dis 
patches  as  they  came  in.  We  went  into  the  house,  and 
were  in  the  northwest  parlor  when  the  telegrams  containing 
the  results  of  the  first  ballot  began  to  arrive.  He  would 
make  comments  on  them,  saying  that  the  vote  of  such  a 
State  was  larger  or  smaller  than  he  supposed  it  would  be 
for  him.  I  had  the  figures  down, — I  kept  tally — and  when 
the  entire  vote  was  reached,  Mr.  Blaine  said,  <  I  think  you 


290  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES   OF 

will  find,  Mr.  Roman,  that  Arthur  will  lead  on  this  ballot.' 
I  said,  *  No,  you  are  mistaken.'  He  said,  'I  have  been 
watching  the  figures,  and  I  think  Arthur  will  lead  slightly.' 
Just  then  we  ascertained  the  tabulated  vote.  He  said,  *  That 
is  just  about  what  they  have  told  it  would  be  on  the  first 
ballot,  but  I  thought  it  would  fall  off  some.'  During  the 
second  ballot  he  said  to  me,  '  You  take  down  the  figures,  I 
am  going  into  the  garden.'  He  then  went  out  with  the 
children  and  sat  down  in  the  hammock.  The  figures  came 
in  so  slowly  that  I  finally  gave  it  up  and  went  out  too.  On 
the  third  ballot,  Miss  Margaret  was  at  the  telephone,  and 
she  kept  tally  after  that.  After  the  third  ballot,  the  ques 
tion  of  adjournment  came  up,  which  was  to  decide  whether 
or  not  Mr.  Elaine  would  get  the  nomination.  For  those 
opposed  to  him  would  vote  for  the  adjournment,  and  those 
in  his  favor  would  vote  to  continue  the  balloting.  When 
the  result  was  announced,  and  they  voted  down  the  motion  to 
adjourn,  we  knew  what  the  next  ballot  must  be.  Mrs.  Elaine 
and  the  children,  Mrs.  and  Miss  Manley,  Miss  Dodge, 
Mrs.  Homan,  Miss  Stanwood,  Gen.  Beal,  and  Alden  Sprague 
of  the  Kennebee  Journal,  were  the  ones  who  were  present 
when  the  announcement  was  made.  We  heard  a  shout  from 
the  house  where  Miss  Margaret  was  at  the  telephone,  and 
instantly  she  rushed  out  of  the  house,  and  run  over  the 
bank  to  the  hammock,  where  her  father  was  sitting,  threw 
herself  upon  him,  and  put  her  arms  around  him.  As  soon 
as  she  could  recover  breath,  she  made  the  announcement 
that  her  father  was  nominated,  though  the  figures  were  not 
learned  until  late  in  the  evening.  Mr.  Elaine  disengaged 
himself  from  his  daughter,  rose  from  the  hammock,  and 
kissed  Mrs.  Elaine  and  the  children.  Then  instantly  it 
seemed  as  if  the  ground  must  have  opened,  and  that 


JAMES    G.    ELAINE.  297 

people  had  sprung  from  it  everywhere.  His  friends  and 
neighbors  from  all  parts  of  the  city  came  to  congratulate 
him.  The  first  to  arrive  were  O.  D.  Baker,  Esq.,  Mr.  E. 
R.  Pierce  and  Mr.  C.  C.  Hunt,  who  drove  up  in  a  carriage 
together.  Mr.  Baker  was  the  first  one,  outside  of  the  group 
with  him,  when  the  news  was  recieved,  to  grasp  him  by  the 
hand  and  offer  congratulations. 

It  was  noticeble,  that  at  the  reception  on  the  evening 
of  the  day  of  his  nomination,  a  large  proportion  of  those 
present  were  working  men  of  the  city,  most  of  whom  he 
knew  personally.  He  was  remarkable  for  recollecting 
everyone  whom  he  once  had  known.  He  never  forgot  a 
face  or  a  name.  At  the  reception  he  would  call  nearly  every 
one  there  by  name.  It  was  a  marvellous  illustration  of  his 
power  to  retain  names  and  faces. 

These  statements,  emanating  as  they  do  from  sources  so 
directly  connected  with  Mr.  Blaine,  indicate  the  general 
estimation  in  which  he  is  held,  and  furnish  the  best  proof  of 
his  generous,  kind  and  upright  nature.  The  character  of 
James  G.  Blaine  is  the  bright  shield  of  loyalty,  honesty  and 
intellect,  against  which  the  slings  and  arrows  of  hate,  born 
of  jealousy,  cannot  prevail. 


298  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


SONG  FOR  BL.AINE. 


TUNE: — "TRAMP,    TRAMP,    TRAMP. 

From  the  lumber  camps  of  Maine 
To  the  ship-yards  on  the  shore, 
Which  have  waited  for  the  hammer's  ring  in  vain, 
First  there  came  a  pleading  voice, 
Which  has  now  become  a  roar, 
'Give  us  our  wisest  leader,  Jimmy  Elaine/* 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  voices  swelling. 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain  and  o'er  plain, 
•4 We  have  waited  long  enough  and  our  temper's  getting  rough. 
We  want  our  brilliant  statesman,  Jimmy  Blame." 

From  New  Hampshire's  granite  rocks, 

Where  the  sturdy  sons  of  toil 

Wring  an  honest,  scanty  living  from  the  soil, 

The  cry  comes  rolling  on,  and  with  all  their  might  and  main 

A  hundred  thousand  throats  are  shouting  "Blaine." 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  voices  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain  and  o'er  plain, 
And  the  gray  rocks  answer  back,  **  We'll  make  the  welkin  crack, 
But  we'll  have;  our  honest  leader,  Jimmy  Blaiiie." 

O'er  the  green  hills  of  Vermont, 
Through  the  valley's  peaceful  shade, 
The  summer  winds  are  whispering  not  in  vain, 
'"Though  we  love  one  noble  son  for  the  good  deeds  he  has  done, 
Still  we'd  rather  have  the  other,  Jimmy  Blaine." 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain  and  o'er  plain, 
The  Green  Mountain  boys  are  out,  and  they  mean  it  when  they  shout, 
"We  don't  want  any  one  but  Blaiue." 


JAMES    G.    BLAINE.  299 

At  the  anvil  and  the  loom, 
In  the  workshop  and  the  mine, 
The  toiling  masses  listen  with  delight, 
As  they  hear  the  glad  refrain  which  they  eeho  back  again, 
"Hurrah!  Hurrah!  for  noble  Jimmy  Blaine!  " 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain,  mine  and  plain, 
"We  work  hard  for  our  living,  and  we  want  our  rights  protected, 
And  the  man  to  do  that  business  is  Jim  Blaine," 

Thus  the  chorus  rolls  along 

O'er  Ticouderoga's  walls, 

Waking  up  the  glorious  echoes  of  Champlaiu; 

And  the  old  historic  ground 

Seems  to  swell  with  joy  profound, 

As  it  quivers  with  the  magic  shout  of  "  Blaine." 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain,  lake  and  plain, 
For  the  old  historic  ground  gives  out  no  doubtful  sound, 
"We  want  that  true  American,  Jim  Blaine." 

But  hark!  what  sound  appears 

To  be  thundering  in  our  ears, 

Like  a  Western  blizzard  coining  on  amain? 

'  Tis  the  outburst  of  the  hope  of  the  far  .Pacific  slope, 

That  at  last  they've  got  a  leader,  Jimmy  Blaine? 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain  and  o'er  plain, 
Till  the  echoes  from  the  West  set  all  our  hearts  at  rest, 
And  we  hail  our  future  President  in  Blaine. 

There  is  still  another  land 

Where  the  dusky  figures  stand, 

List'uiug  in  their  weary  toil  among  the  cane, 

For  the  name  of  one  they  know, 

Who  was  foe  unto  their  foe, 

And  with  tears  of  love  they  shout  for  "  Mnssa  Blaine." 


300  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  and  the  mountains  to  the  plain, 
While  the  Southern  breezes  bring  good  news  on  joyful  \viug- 
"  We're  with  you  heart  and  hand  for  Jimmy  Blaiue." 

Thus  from  North,  East,  South  and  West, 

All  the  poor  and  the  opprest 

Throughout  this  glorious,  broad  and  fair  domain, 

Feel  their  hearts  within  them  rise, 

And  hope  dawns  on  their  eyes, 

For  they  love  their  trusted  leader,  Jimmy  Blame. 

Hark,  hark,  hark,  the  chorus  swelling, 
From  the  seaboard  over  mountain  and  o'er  plain, 
The  people  caii't  be  wrong,  for  they  all  join  in  one  song, 
"Hurrah,  for  our  next  President,  James  Blame." 


JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

No  man  ever  deserved  better  of  his  country  than  John  A. 
Logan,  nor  was  there  ever  a  more  conspicuous  example  of 
the  uprising  of  genius  through  a  surface  of  inherited  hin 
drances,  than  is  found  in  his  life.  I  have  known  him  since 
my  earliest  boyhood,  and  among  the  pleasant  recollections 
of  my  youth  are  the  speeches  I  have  heard  him  utter  as  a 
lawyer  and  as  a  politician.  Hundreds  of  so-called  biogra 
phies  have  been  written  of  Logan,  but  I  have  never  seen  one 
in  which  there  was  scarcely  a  pretence  to  truth  or  justice. 
It  may  be  a  fact  that  he  has  enemies,  for  all  great  men  have, 
but  it  is  in  my  province  to  know  that  he  has  as  many  de 
voted,  admiring  friends  as  any  man  can  well  afford  to  coun 
tenance.  Every  truly  loyal  American  esteems  a  self-made 
man,  and,  as  a  rule,  manifests  more  or  less  dislike  for  those 
whom  fortune  has  spewed  out  upon  the  world  with  a  nursing 
bottle  full  of  wealth,  and  gold  dollars  for  playthings;  this 
feeling  is  natural,  because  have  we  not  such  an  abundance 
of  proof  that  "  necessity  is  not  only  the  mother  of  inven 
tion,"  but  of  brains  as  well? 

John  A.  Logan  is  a  man  absolutely  moulded  in  his  own 
die;  he  was  created  the  buffet  of  idle  circumstance,  without 
any  help  or  encouragement,  in  a  community  where  intelli 
gence  was  positively  a  drug  in  the  market  at  the  time ;  where, 
indeed,  the  aspirations  that  stirred  the  Egyptian  ignorance 

303 


304  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    CF 

rose  no  higher  than  keeping  a  whiskey  shop,  fiddling,  danc 
ing  and  horse  racing.  The  writer  was  born  and  reared  in  a 
section  very  near  to  that  in  which  Logan  took  his  initiation, 
and  therefore  has  no  interest  in  exaggerating  facts,  but 
rather  in  dwarfing  them,  if  it  were  not  my  purpose  to  write 
only  facts,  without  gilding. 

Southern  Illinois  is  that  portion  of  the  State  lying  south 
of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroad;  the  two  sections  are 
not  only  materially  different  in  configuration,  one  being 
prairie  and  the  other  mountainous,  but  there  is  a  pronounced 
difference  in  the  culture  which  is  met  with  in  the 
two,  more  marked  twenty  years  ago,  however,  than  at 
present.  Why  this  is  so,  I  cannot  explain,  but  the  fact  will 
be  freely  admitted  by  every  person  residing  in  the  southern 
section ;  the  same  difference  is  noticeable,  also,  in  the  two 
divisions  of  Indiana  and  Missouri.  While  those  living  in 

o 

the  south  parts  generally  have  less  education  than  their 
northern  neighbors,  they  are  boundless  in  hospitality,  gen 
erous  in  everything,  and  exhibit  great  sociability.  Particu 
larly  were  these  traits  of  character  prominent  in  the  early 
settlement  of  the  State,  when  Gen.  Logan  was  a  boy,  and 
their  impress  was  so  indellibly  impressed  upon  him  then, 
that  he  has  not  yet  outgrown  them,  and  never  will.  That 
they  are  not  to  his  discredit,  but  rather  add  to  the  good 
qualities  he  has  always  manifested,  will  appear  in  the  record 
of  his  life,  which  it  is  my  pleasure  to  here  write. 

John  Alexander  Logan  was  born  in  Brownsville,  Jackson 
county,  Illinois,  February  15th,  1827,  in  a  two-story, 
weather-boarded  log  house.  This  building  was  destroyed 
by  fire  six  years  ago,  much  to  the  sorrow  of  the  Logans, 
who  were  anxious  for  its  preservation.  Fortunately  the 
house  had  been  photographed  a  few  years  before  its 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  305 

destruction.  Gen.  Logan's  father,  Dr.  John  Logan, 
was  a  native  of  Ireland,  but  at  the  age  of  five  years 
he  came  with  his  father's  family  to  this  country,  and 
settled  in  Maryland.  The  Logan  family  remained  in  Mary 
land  less  than  two  years,  when  they  removed  to  Ohio,  and 
thence  to  Missouri,  settling  in  the  southern  part  of  the  latter 
State,  where  they  remained  several  years,  both  of  the  parents 
dying  there.  Dr.  John  Logan,  father  of  Gen.  Logan,  con 
tinued  to  reside  in  Missouri  until  1823,  when  he  removed  to 
Jackson  county,  Illinois.  Before  leaving  Missouri,  however, 
he  married  a  girl  named  Barkune,  whose  father  was  a  French 
man,  and  whose  mother  was  an  Indian  woman,  though  of 
what  tribe  none  of  the  Logan  family  now  living  know. 
There  was  one  child  born  of  this  marriage,  who  is  now  a 
woman  of  considerable  age,  living  in  the  vicinity  of  Marion, 
but  Mrs.  Logan  died  eighteen  months  after  her  marriage. 
With  his  infant  daughter,  therefore,  Dr.  Logan  went  to 
Illinois  and  settled  in  Brownsville,  the  county  seat  of  Jack 
son  county.  He  had  studied  medicine,  principally  under 
the  tutelage  of  his  father,  and  upon  going  to  Illinois  he 
entered  upon  the  practice  of  that  profession.  In  those  early 
days  physicians  were  scarce,  and,  to  use  a  homely  phrase, 
"  they  came  high,"  so  that  Dr.  Logan  soon  obtained  a  large 
practice  from  a  section  twenty-five  miles  around  him.  Dr. 
Logan  was  a  man  of  very  great  ability,  measured  by  the 
standards  of  that  day,  and  though  he  was  not  a  graduated 
physician,  his  knowledge  of  medicine  was  indicated  by  the 
success  which  attended  his  practice;  his  reputation  became 
so  great  that  wealthy  patients,  residing  in  places  hundreds 
of  miles  distant,  sought  his  services ;  his  very  large  practice, 
in  fact,  led  to  his  death,  giving  him  no  time  for  rest  and 
draining  his  vitality,  until  the  last  spark  was  expended.  He 


306  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

was  several  times  elected  to  the  Legislature,  and  was  tendered 
Congressional  honors,  but  refused  to  accept  them,  being 
wedded  to  his  profession. 

In  the  year  1842  the  court  house  in  Brownsville  took  fire 
and  was  burned  to  the  ground,  together  with  most  of  the 
county  records.  Dr.  Logan  had  a  farm  of  nearly  four  hun 
dred  acres,  lying  four  miles  north  of  Brownsville,  on  the 
Big  Muddy  river,  twenty  acres  of  which  he  offered  to  do 
nate  to  the  county  for  a  court  house.  The  location  was  so 
pretty  that,  by  a  vote,  the  county  accepted  Dr.  Logan's  do 
nation,  and  in  1843  the  county  seat  was  changed  to  Mur- 
physboro,  named  in  honor  of  one  of  the  County  Commission 
ers.  Dr.  Logan  then  built  a  hotel  in  the  new  village,  and 
thus  the  town  was  begun.  He  profited  by  this  change  of 
the  county  seat,  and  went  to  Murphysboro  to  live,  still  fol 
lowing  his  profession  and  farming  also,  making  consider 
able  money,  but  his  generous  spirit  prevented  him  from 
accumulating  a  fortune.  He  was  security  and  bondsman 
for  everybody  who  applied  to  him,  and  his  losses  in  this 
way  amounted  to  many  thousands  of  dollars.  He  died  in 
1854,  at  the  age  of  sixty- four  years,  leaving,  however,  a 
considerable  estate. 

Dr.  Logan's  wife,  General  Logan's  mother,  was,  in 
maidenhood,  Miss  Elizabeth  Jenkins,  a  South  Carolinian  by 
birth,  a  lady  of  considerable  learning  and  of  sharp  faculties 
generally,  far  in  advance  of  the  community  in  which  she 
lived.  Her  brother,  Alexander  M.  Jenkins,  was  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Illinois,  and  for  many  years  held  the  position 
of  Circuit  Judge  in  Southern  Illinois.  There  were  nine 
children  born  to  Dr.  Logan,  only  four  of  whom  are  now 
living,  viz:  Gen.  John  A.,  Thomas  M.,  Dorthula  Angeline, 
now  Mrs.  Rogers,  and  James  Logan,  all  of  whom  are  still 


BIRTH-PLACE  OF  GEN.  JOHN  A.   LOGAN. 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  309 

residents  of  Murphysboro,  excepting  Gen.  Logan,  who,  in 
1871,  moved  to  Chicago  into  a  beautiful  residence  presented 
to  him  by  the  citizens  of  that  city,  since  which  time  he  has 
resided  there.  Mrs.  Logan  died  in  1874,  aged  sixty-nine 
years.  Thomas  Logan  resides  in  the  north  end  of  Murphys 
boro,  on  the  skirts  of  a  farm  of  four  hundred  and  fifty 
acres,  which  is  owned  jointly  by  himself  and  Gen.  Logan. 
He  is  wealthy,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  in  the  last 
twelve  years  he  has  paid  $50,000  in  security  debts  ;  in  this 
particular  being  a  counterpart  of  his  father.  James  Logan 
is  postmaster  at  Murphysboro,  a  position  he  is  indebted  for 
to  a  friend  in  Washingtpn,  but  not  to  his  distinguished 
brother.  Mrs.  Rogers,  Logan's  sister,  is  the  wife  of  a  gen 
tleman  connected  in  an  official  capacity  with  the  Big  Muddy 
Coal  Co.,  in  a  good  position  which  he  fills  with  ability. 


310  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  youth  of  Gen.  Logan  was  marked  by  adventures  pe 
culiar  to  a  frontier  country,  and  is  interesting,  because  it 
indicates  the  struggles  of  a  great  intellect  under  unique  cir 
cumstances.  It  is  a  singular  fact,  which  everyone  has  ob 
served,  that  distinguished  men  are  invariably  the  outgrowth 
of  mischievous  boys;  the  sluggish,  pious  boy  rarely  attains 
to  exalted  position  in  manhood,  and  the  reason  is  not  hard 
to  find.  John  A.  Logan,  called  in  his  boyhood  "Jack," 
was  a  rollicking,  hot-headed,  prank-loving  youth.  He  en 
joyed  the  wild  freedom  of  border  life,  played  the  fiddle 
very  well,  could  dance  a  jig  with  any  plantation  darkey,  and 
as  a  rider  of  race-horses  he  had  no  equal  in  the  State. 

As  a  boy,  Logan  was  uncommonly  spare,  so  frail  as  to 
appear  consumptive,  but  he  was  too  active  to  become  a  vic 
tim  of  that  disease;  his  weakly  looks  were  only  deceiving, 
for  no  one  could  endure  greater  hardships  than  he.  His 
first  school-teacher  was  a  Mrs.  Howard,  who  taught  in 
Brownsville  whenever  she  could  secure  a  sufficient  number 
of  subscription  scholars  to  pay  her.  Logan  was  about 
seven  years  old  when  he  received  his  first  instruction,  but 
even  at  this  early  age  he  showed  the  inherent  genius  that 
was  destined  to  place  him  in  the  high  positions  he  has  since 
held. 

On  a  certain  Christmas,  school  was  in  session  as  usual, 
Mrs.  Howard  having  announced  on  the  day  previous  that 
she  could  not  afford  to  give  a  holiday  which  she  would  be  re 
quired  to  make  up ;  that  she  was  anxious  to  conclude  her 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  311 

school  as  soon  as  possible  in  order  that  she  might  accept  a 
situation  that  had  been  tendered  to  her.  So  school  was 
called  as  usual,  and  nearly  all  the  scholars  were  punctually 
present.  When  the  first  class  was  called  to  recite,  however, 
Jack  Logan  arose  in  his  seat — a  little  tot,  filled  with  assur 
ance — and  courteously  begging  pardon  for  interrupting  the 
regular  exercises,  asked  the  privilege  of  making  a  few  re 
marks.  The  request  was  such  a  novel  one,  coming  from  so 
youthful  a  source,  that,  curious  to  know  what  it  meant,  Mrs. 
Howard  gave  him  permission  to  speak.  Thereupon  Jack 
began  a  forensic  effort  on  the  duty  of  Christians  in  their 
observance  of  Christmas  day.  He  continued  to  harangue 
the  school  in  a  stump  style  of  oration,  utterly  regardless 
of  remonstrance  or  threats  from  his  teacher,  and  so  excited 
the  pupils  that  a  riotous  proceeding  was  inaugurated;  those 
that  were  in  attendance  were  there  very  much  against  their  will 
and  only  needed  a  leader  to  show  their  displeasure  by  re 
volting.  Jack  Logan's  speech  was  seized  as  a  pretext,  and 
such  noise  followed  that  Mrs.  Howard  was  compelled  to  an 
nounce  a  holiday  to  get  rid  of  her  turbulent  tormentors. 

The  next  school  that  Jack  attended  was  taught  by  Miss 
Wells,  in  a  little  log  house  at  Tuttle's  Prairie,  where  he  mas 
tered  the  spelling  of  words  of  two  syllables  ;  but  Miss  Wells 
was  compelled  to  abandon  teaching  after  the  first  year,  on 
account  of  ill  health.  He  was  next  sent,  with  his  brother 
Tom,  two  years  younger,  to  Shiloh,  Jackson  county,  where  a 
school  was  being  taught  by  old  man  Lynch,  a  crabbed  man 
who  firmly  believed  in  the  efficacy  of  the  rod  as  an 
excitant  auxiliary  to  books  and  slates.  Thomas  had  not 
been  in  the  school-room  twenty  minutes,  on  the  first 
day,  before  old  man  Lynch  gathered  him  for  an  infraction 
of  some  implied  rule,  and  with  a  flexible  coat-duster  gave 


312  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

him  "one  grand  exercise,"  as  a  Frenchman  would  express  it, 
that  caused  his  back  to  smoke  for  many  days.  Tom  took 
the  threshing  as  an  evidence  that  he  needed  no  schooling, 
and  retired  permanently  to  his  home.  Jack,  however,  be 
came  so  great  a  favorite  with  his  teacher  that  he  induced  his 
father  to  employ  Mr.  Lynch  by  the  year  to  reside  with  them 
and  teach  the  children.  This  arrangement  gave  the  Logan 
children  better  opportunity  for  acquiring  an  education 
than  any  others  in  the  neighborhood  enjoyed,  as  schools 
were  in  no  place  of  that  section  taught  regularly,  while  the 
teachers  were  usually  of  an  inferior  grade.  Mr.  Lynch  is 
represented  as  having  been  a  man  of  very  considerable 
erudition,  possessing  a  masterly  knowledge  of  Latin  and 
Greek,  two  studies  which  Jack  Logan  took  especial  delight 
in  pursuing. 

Mr.  Lynch  was  decidedly  eccentric,  and  one  of  his  eccen 
tricities  was  manifested  in  his  strong  love  for  his  pupil 
Jack;  it  was  more  than  a  fancy  or  mere  liking,  for  all  his 
actions  clearly  showed  that  Jack  was  the  one  thing  that 
gave  a  charm  to  life  and  afforded  him  happiness;  nor  was 
this  love  wholly  unrequited,  for  Jack  could  not,  with  his 
warm  and  sympathetic  nature,  be  insensible  to  the  devotion 
of  his  teacher.  Tom,  from  the  time  that  Mr.  Lynch  intro 
duced  himself  by  practical  instructions  so  warmly  at  Shiloh, 
never  submitted  to  a  second  trial,  but  held  aloof  from  friendly 
relation  with  the  old  teacher,  refusing  to  eat  at  the  same 
table  or  remain  in  the  room  with  him.  The  relation  be 
tween  Jack  and  Mr.  Lynch,  however,  could  not  have  been 
more  pleasant;  at  all  spare  hours  they  were  together  pour 
ing  over  the  embalmed  languages  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome,  for  no  other  branches  save  elocution  possessed  very 
great  attractions  for  Jack,  and  it  was  this  home  instruction 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  313 

that   made   Gen.    Logan   the   excellent   Greek   and   Latin 
scholar  he  now  is. 

Having  developed  elocutionary  powers  with  the  faculties 
of  speech,  Jack  cultivated  them  with  a  longing  aspiration 
to  be  a  great  orator.  In  this  he  was  encouraged  by  his 
faithful  teacher,  who  sat  hundreds  of  times  upon  some  log 
lying  in  the  forest,  charmed  by  the  natural,  honeyed  flow 
of  words  from  his  pupil  speaking  from  an  adjacent  stump. 
In  the  primeval  woods  of  Southern  Illinois,  with  soughing 
trees  and  twittering  birds  for  audience  ;  or  before  one  listen 
ing  old  man,  full  of  pride  for  his  charge,  whose  ears  were 
filled  with  the  music  of  prophecy,  it  was  here  that  Gen.  John 
A.  Logan  trained  and  became  an  orator;  where  he  cultiva 
ted,  under  inspiration,  the  genius  by  which  he  has  since, 
long  before  attaining  manhood,  held  captive  the  ear  of 
thousands,  and  left  his  star  of  fame  in  the  very  zenith  of 
American  progress. 


314  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  school-days  of  Jack  Logan  were  not  numerous,  for 
his  father  was  a  man  who  believed  in  bringing  up  his  family 
to  a  practical  knowledge  of  hard  work ;  it  was  this  idea  that, 
more  than  anything  else,  induced  Dr.  Logan  to  go  into  farm 
ing  extensively,  for  with  his  five  boys  he  concluded  that 
a  working  force,  quite  sufficient  for  the  cultivation  of  a 
large  body  of  land,  had  been  graciously  supplied  him  by 
good  fortune. 

When  Jack  was  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  set  to  farm- 
work,  plowing,  grubbing  and  felling  trees,  chiefly.  On 
one  occasion,  while  his  father  was  attending  a  protracted 
session  of  the  Legislature,  Jack  and  his  brother  Tom  were 
ordered  to  plow  a  large  field  of  corn,  in  which  there  was 
such  a  quantity  of  cockle-burs  that  the  crop  of  corn  was 
threatened.  As  the  two  boys  were  young,  and  both  small  for 
their  age,  Dr.  Logan  had  two  plows  made  for  them  with  short 
handles  and  wooden  mould-boards.  When  they  started  in 
to  work  the  boys  found  the  plows  so  contrary  that,  despite 
all  their  exertions,  they  would  skip  out  of  the  ground,  or 
take  quick  sheers  and  cut  up  the  corn.  Worried  beyond 
measure  by  the  eccentric  action  of  their  plows,  and  knowing 
that  to  continue  in  that  way  meant  a  sound  flogging  in  the 
end,  the  boys  collected  some  brush  together,  and,  setting  the 
pile  on  fire,  threw  the  two  plows  on  top  and  took  a  savage 
delight  in  seeing  them  burn.  To  recompense  for  this  destruc 
tion,  Jack  and  Tom  foraged  for  two  other  plows  having 
iron  mould-boards.  These  they  obtained,  and,  though  to 
hold  on  to  the  handles  required  a  high  stretch  and  contin- 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  315 

ued  strain,  by  dint  of  industry  they  tended  the  corn  most 
satisfactorily.  When  Dr.  Logan  returned  home  he  com 
plimented  the  boys  for  their  excellent  work,  but  after  the 
most  diligent  search  he  was  unable  to  locate  the  little 
plows  with  wooden  mould-boards,  and  had  to  conclude  that 
some  "varmint"  had  made  off  with  them. 

In  those  days  the  nearest  grist-mill  to  the  Logan  farm 
was  fifteen  miles  distant,  and  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Jack  and 
Tom  to  do  all  the  milling.  Fifteen  miles  is  not  a  great  dis 
tance  under  certain  circumstances,  but  it  is  dreadfully 
remote  under  others. 

The  mill  of  which  I  now  write,  was  a  small  concern  that 
was  run  by  horses  not  belonging  to  the  mill  owner,  but  by 
oxen  or  horses  supplied  by  the  patrons;  in  other  words, 
every  one  had  to  grind  his  own  grist.  It  would  often  hap 
pen  that  fifty  or  more  persons  would  bring  their  grain  at 
the  same  time,  and  as  each  was  compelled  to  wait  his  turn, 
it  not  infrequently  occurred  that  some  would  have  to  remain 
for  several  days  before  they  could  get  their  grinding.  It 
was  on  occasions  like  these,  when  crowds  gathered,  that 
real  Southern  Illinois  frolic  was  indulged.  Horse-racing 
was  an  irresistible  pastime,  and  hundreds  of  times  were  the 
wagers  laid  "  horse  against  horse,"  and  the  unfortunate 
ones  had  to  carry  their  grist  home  on  their  own  backs. 

Among  the  riders  and  betters  Jack  Logan  was  foremost ; 
he  stood  ready  to  hazzard  horse,  saddle,  bridle,  blanket  and 
grist,  and  with  all  the  chances  which  he  took  at  such  races, 
fortune  so  favored  him  that  he  was  never  once  compelled 
to  walk  home. 

After  Murphy sboro  was  made  the  county  seat,  a  race 
track  was  laid  off  in  Dr.  Logan's  wheat-field,  right  through 
what  is  now  the  business  center  of  the  town.  Jack  Logan 


316  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

was  famous  as  a  jockey,  being  very  light,  skillful,  and  knew 
how  to  push  a  horse;  for  this  reason,  his  services  as  a  rider 
were  very  much  sought,  and  the  Murphysboro  race-track 
became  so  popular  that  horses  were  brought  there  from  all 
parts  of  the  State  and  run.  Among  the  best  horses  that 
Dr.  Logan  owned  was  one  called  Walnut  Cracker,  in  the 
Southern  Illinois  vernacular  of  the  time,  "Warnut  Cracker." 
This  was  Jack's  favorite  horse,  and  he  would  lay  all  his 
possessions  on  him  against  any  horse  that  could  be  brought 
on  the  track. 

But  horse-racing  was  not  the  only  pleasurable  pursuit 
that  our  young  hero  indulged.  A  man  living  in  Southern 
Illinois  who  couldn't  play  the  fiddle  was  fairly  ostracized 
socially  ;  he  was  a  poor  fellow  worthy  of  much  pity,  but 
not  fellowship;  good  to  plow  and  steer  oxen  but  as  a  social 
feature  his  lack  of  the  one  indispensable  requirement  made 
him  a  conspicuous  failure.  Of  course,  Jack  Logan  could  not 
afford  to  be  a  failure,  so  with  his  cunning  art  of  adaptation 
he  became  not  only  a  fiddler  but  one  most  skillful  with  the 
rosined  bow.  Dancing,  however,  was  an  accomplishment 
of  hardly  less  importance,  and  for  this  reason  all  true 
Southern  Illinoisans  could  both  fiddle  and  dance.  In  both 
these  Jack  Logan  was  an  artist,  and  no  truly  enjoyable 
* 'frolic"  could  be  held  without  Jack  was  a  participant,  so 
thought  the  people  of  his  section.  There  were  quiltings, 
log-rollings,  apple-parings,  corn-huskings,  all  of  which  oc 
casions  must  terminate  with  a  dance. 

There  was  a  quilting  "given"  by  a  neighbor,  once,  some 
ten  miles  from  Murphysboro,  to  which  Jack  and  his  sister 
Dorthula  were  invited  and,  of  course,  they  went.  It  hap 
pened  that  the  weather  was  not  delightful,  so  that  the  atten 
dance  was  not  as  large  as  usual,  there  being  nine  boys  and 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  319 

only  eight  girls,  just  enough  for  two  sets  in  a  quadrille, 
leaving  out  one  boy  to  play  the  fiddle.  When  the  * 'quilt 
ing"  had  progressed  awhile,  it  as  proposed  that  a  few 
moments  of  resting  time  should  be  devoted  to  the  dance, 
when  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  no  fiddle  in  the 
house.  Another  trouble  arose  from  the  fact  that  Mrs. 
Logan,  being  a  devoted  Christian,  positively  forbade  her 
girls  from  dancing  under  any  circumstances,  and  this  pro 
hibition  denied  Miss  Dorthula  the  pleasure  which  she  would 
have  gladly  indulged,  thus  leaving  the  second  set  unfilled. 
To  provide  against  these  two  interferences,  Jack  proposed  to 
return  home,  get  his  fiddle,  and  by  explaining  the  circum 
stances  to  his  mother,  obtain  her  permission  for  Miss  Dor 
thula  to  complete  the  set.  He  therefore  rode  furiously 
home  and  in  a  few  hours  returned  with  his  fiddle ;  but  well 
knowing  his  mother's  firm  will  and  prejudice,  said  nothing 
to  her  about  his  sister,  as  it  would  have  only  complicated 
matters  the  more.  When  he  arrived  at  the  house  with 'his 
fiddle,  he  was  met  by  Miss  Dorthula,  who  anxiously  inquired 
for  her  mother's  answer.  Jack  responded,  "Oh,  she  don't 
care,  under  the  circumstances,"  so  the  dance  went  merrily  on, 

On  the  following  day,  thinking  she  had  had  the  consent  of 
her  mother  to  do  so,  Miss  Dorthula  related  gleefully  how 
she  had  enjoyed  the  dance.  "The  dance!"  said  Mrs. 
Logan  in  surprise;  "did  you  dance  at  the  quilting  last 
night?  Well,  I  have  a  small  preventive  here  in  the  corner, 
which  I  will  now  administer,"  and  poor  Dorthula  was  put 
through  a  threshing  machine  in  short  order,  despite  the  re 
monstrances  of  herself  and  Jack. 

On  another  occasion,  Jack  and  five  of  his  companions, 
among  the  number  being  Mr.  Cox,  a  relative  of  the  Logans, 
and  still  a  resident  of  Murphysboro,  went  to  a  dance,  fifteen 


320  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

miles  from  their  town,  where,  having  enjoyed  themselves  as 
usual,  they  concluded  to  attend  church,  which  was  being 
held  at  a  little  log  house  five  miles  further  on.  The  minis 
ter  was  an  odd  specimen,  being  a  typical  mountain  back 
woods  preacher,  over  six  feet  tall,  angular  to  gawkiness, 
and  that  his  figure  might  appear  the  more  grotesque  he 
wore  pants  that  were  fully  four  inches  too  short.  But  his 
pious  address  was  the  cap-sheaf  of  his  awkward  appearance. 
44 Amen"  was  on  his  every  breath,  and  exhortation  was  al 
most  as  natural  to  him  as  chewing  tobacco ;  in  walking,  he 
carried  either  an  upward  or  downward,  reverently  painful, 
cast  of  countenance,  and  his  hands  were  either  crossed  in 
front  or  behind,  while  he  greeted  everybody  as  " sister"  or 
"  brother."  To  shorten  the  description,  he  was  an  inviting 
subject  for  a  joke. 

After  "meeting"  had  concluded,  Jack  and  his  compan 
ions  loitered  awhile  talking  with  the  girls,  and  until  the 
preacher  had  departed,  not  noting  which  direction  he  hud 
taken.  When  at  length  they  started  home,  it  was  at  their 
usual  rapid  pace  in  riding,  and  they  had  gone  only  a  few 
miles  before  they  overtook  the  devotional  preacher;  he  was 
riding  a  religious-looking  horse,  and  his  hands  were  crossed 
over  the  pommel  of  his  saddle  in  an  attitude  of  abject  depen 
dency  on  the  Lord's  will,  reckoning  nothing  of  his  free-agency 
powers.  As  the  boys  passed  him  they  courteously  saluted, 
to  which  the  preacher  only  bowed  and  went  on  with  his 
glowing  reflections  about  Judgment  day. 

Jack,  full  of  fun  at  all  times,  was  suddenly  inspired  to 
perpetrate  a  joke  on  the  demure  minister,  and  to  carry  his 
idea  into  effect,  he  rode  rapidly  ahead  for  nearly  two  miles, 
followed  by  his  companions,  and  drew  rein  after  passing 
over  Crab  Orchard  bridge,  a  structure  which  spanned  Big 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  321 

Muddy  river,  which  was  about  thirty  feet  high.  Here  he 
disclosed  his  plan  to  the  other  boys,  which  was  that  they 
should  hide  their  horses  in  the  brush,  turn  their  hats,  coats 
and  pants  wrong  side  out  and  then  stain  their  faces  with 
poke-berry  juice,  preparatory  to  meeting  the  meek  disciple 
on  the  bridge  and  giving  him  an  Indian  scalp-dance.  Every 
thing  being  prepared,  the  mischievous  worldlings  secretly 
disposed  themselves  about  the  bridge  and  awaited  their  vic 
tim.  In  due  time,  riding  slowly  and  religiously  along  the 
dusty  road,  was  seen  the  lugubrious,  heavenly-minded  regen 
erator,  pausing  not  nor  giving  heed  to  his  surroundings. 
In  another  moment  he  was  on  the  bridge,  and  in  yet  another 
there  rose  up  all  around  him  hideous,  uncanny  demons,  who 
with  yells  sprang  and  seized  his  horse.  Terror  immediately 
dissipated  the  sanctimonious  countenance  he  was  accus 
tomed  to  wear,  and  with  a  "help  me,  Lord,"  he  was  ready 
to  give  up  the  ghost.  The  painted  boys  thoroughly  im 
pressed  the  preacher  with  a  belief  that  Beelzebub  and  a  se 
lect  few  of  his  minions  had  set  upon  him,  and  when  they 
had  enjoyed  the  joke -to  proper  limits,  the  minister  was  re 
mounted  by  four  of  the  boys,  while  Jack  placed  a  few 
cockle-burs~Under  the  horse's  tail  to  force  a  spirited  conclu 
sion.  Immediately  away  flew  the  religious  man  on  his  re 
ligious  horse,  over  hill  and  valley,  faster  than  Tarn  O'Shan- 
ter  or  John  Gilpin,  the  preacher  feeling  that  his  horse  was 
speeded  by  five  devils,  while  the  horse  evidently  believed 
that  he  was  being  prodded  by  a  sulphureous  fire-brand. 
Horse  and  rider,  after  a  fifteen-mile  race,  bore  down  upon 
the  village,  and  the  people  rushed  out  in  alarm  to  learn  the 
news.  When  at  length  a  stop  was  made,  the  fairly  ex 
hausted  man  of  holiness  told,  between  gasps  for  breath,  how 
five  hideous  devils  had  met  him  on  Crab  Orchard  bridge 


322  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

with  spears,  toasting  forks  and  spits,  and  how,  after  much 
wrestling,  the  Lord  had  delivered  him  out  of  their  hands. 
This  was  one  of  Jack  Logan's  tricks;  marvelously  A\oll 
planned  and  brilliantly  executed.  The  spirit  which  prompted 
this  joke  \yas  not  a  profane  one,  though  it  involved  a  minis 
ter,  but  was  the  manifestation  of  a  humor  which  nature  had 
bounteously  given  him.  Logan  was  very  far  from  being  a 
malicious  boy  ;  indeed,  he  was  kind  and  sympathetic,  but 
delighted  in  anecdote,  regardless  of  who  might  be  the  vic 
tim.  This  disposition,  so  prominent  in  his  boyhood,  has  not 
been  radically  changed  in  later  years,  though  the  dignity 
which  comes  with  age  prohibits  its  exhibition.  Few  men 
can  tell  a  joke  with  greater  effect  or  relate  more  of  them 
than  John  A.  Logan,  while  he  enjoys  an  anecdote  just  as 
much  now  as  the  day  he  beleaguered  the  preacher  on  Crab 
Orchard  bridge. 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  323 


CHAPTER  IV. 

There  was  that  in  the  dauntless,  fiery  spirit  of  Jack  Lo 
gan,  which  qualified  and  adapted  him  to  military  adventure; 
he  was  restless  for  honor,  and  his  longings  were  all  disasso 
ciated  from  the  surroundings  which  hedged  him  about. 
While  others,  impressed  by  the  grovelling  influences  of  low 
condition,  moved  in  the  narrow  sphere  of  questionable  use 
fulness,  or  conformed  to  the  humble  circumstances  of  birth, 
Logan's  ambition  was  to  cast  himself  into  some  breach  of 
danger,  or  hazard  a  die  that  would  either  win  plaudits  with 
reputation,  or  sink  him  under  a  grand  patriotic  effort.  There 
fore,  when  war  with  Mexico  was  declared,  though  but  twenty 
years  of  age,  Jack  proffered  his  services  and  was  enrolled 
as  a  private  in  the  1st  Illinois  Infantry.  He  did  not  wait 
for  honors,  which  he  might  carry  upon  his  shoulders  into 
the  army,  but  bearing  a  knapsack  and  musket  he  entered  the 
ranks  and  marched  with  martial  spirit  into  the  enemy's 
country;  on  to  Palo  Alto,  Eesaca  de  la  Palma,  Monterey 
and  Buena  Vista,  under  Taylor.  On  every  field  Jack  Logan 
was  a  hero,  pronounced  and  acknowledged,  always  in  the 
front,  as  fortune  happily  threw  him,  his  keen  black  eye  ever 
employed  sighting  the  gun  barrel  or  locating  the  enemy; 
where  no  other  dared  to  go  Jack  Logan  begged  to  be  com 
missioned  for  the  duty.  His  brave  conduct  could  not  go 
unrewarded,  for  the  gallant  Taylor,  quick  to  observe  the  true 
metal  of  his  ambitious  soldier,  gave  him  a  commission 
as  First  Lieutenant.  At  Buena  Vista  he  won  the  title  of 
"  Intrepid  Jack"  by  exhibiting  a  rare  leadership  and  al 
most  unexampled  courage. 


324  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

When  the  war  with  Mexico  terminated,  Logan  returned 
home,  and  in  1849  he  was  elected  Clerk  of  Jackson  county. 
This  office  he  did  not  seek,  as  his  ambition  was  directed 
towards  the  profession  of  law,  in  which  he  was  encouraged 
by  his  uncle,  Alexander  Jenkins,  who  was  then  filling  the 
office  of  Circuit  Judge.  But  as  his  financial  affairs  were 
not  prosperous,  Logan  accepted  the  position  to  which  his 
friends  had  elected  him;  but  at  the  expiration  of  his  term 
he  refused  to  be  a  candidate  again,  feeling  that  time  was 
now  precious,  and  that  to  qualify  himself  for  the  law  he 
must  begin  the  study  at  once.  Accordingly,  he  entered  the 
office  of  Judge  Jenkins  as  a  student,  where  he  applied  him 
self  diligently  for  one  year,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time 
he  attended  the  Louisville  Law  School,  and  there  completed 
his  course  in  1852,  graduating  with  the  honors  of  first  ora 
tor  in  his  class. 

Returning  home,  Logan  entered  into  partnership  with  his 
uncle,  but  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year  ( 1852),  he  was  elected 
Prosecuting  Attorney  of  the  Third  Judicial  District  of  Illi 
nois,  a  position  which  he  held  until  1857.  From  his  first 
appearance  in  court,  as  an  attorney,  Logan  gave  promise  of 
attaining  his  loftiest  ambition.  His  first  speech  was  char 
acterized  by  its  clearness,  logic  and  eloquence,  and  his  suc 
cess  was  complete.  The  people  of  Jackson  county  recog 
nized  his  great  abilities  and  were  anxious  to  push  him  for 
ward  as  their  representative,  because  he  would  reflect  honor 
upon  them.  Thus,  in  the  fall  of  1853,  while  still  holding  the 
office  of  Prosecuting  Attorney,  he  was  elected  to  the  Legisla 
ture,  to  which  position  he  was  re-elected  three  consecutive 
terms.  In  the  councils  of  his  State  he  immediately  won 
distinction,  being  bold,  able,  and,  in  forensic  speech,  the 
peer  of  any  who  served  with  him.  His  star  was  ever  on  the 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  325 

ascendant,  because  his  purpose  was  most  honorable,  his 
abilities  pronounced,  and  his  constituents  held  him  in  such 
high  esteem  that  they  contributed  with  all  their  means  to 
his  advancement. 

In  1856  Logan  was  chosen  an  elector  on  the  Buchanan 
ticket,  from  the  Ninth  Congressional  District,  and  in  1858 
he  was  elected  to  Congress  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  to  rep 
resent  the  same  district,  receiving  15, 878  votes  against  2,796 
cast  for  his  Republican  opponent,  Mr.  Phillips.  This  ma 
jority,  13,082,  was  unprecedented,  but  in  1860  he  was  re- 
elected  over  Linegar,  a  Republican,  by  a  majority  of  15,942. 

During  the  terms  of  legislative  office  to  which  he  was 
elected,  Logan  utilized  the  time  between  sessions  practicing 
his  profession  in  the  courts  of  Southern  Illinois,  where 
he  was  regarded  as  the  ablest  lawyer  at  the  bar,  and  this  repu 
tation  was  an  excellent  foundation  for  the  success  which 
attended  all  his  efforts.  He  was  not  only  eloquent,  but  also 
a  man  of  acute  perception  and  analytical  mind,  which 
natural  abilities  adapted  him  specially  to  criminal  prac 
tice.  A  case  in  point  will  tend  to  show  the  powers  mentioned, 
as  also  his  comprehensive  knowledge  and  appreciation  of 
the  law's  technicalities: 

In  a  difficulty  between  two  men  in  the  town  of  Carbon- 
dale,  one  of  them  was  killed  by  a  knife-thrust  in  the  back, 
and  the  circumstances  were  such  that  the  murder  was 
declared  unprovoked.  The  murderer  was  apprehended, 
and  being  brought  to  trial,  John  A.  Logan  was  en 
gaged  to  defend  him.  The  testimony  as  to  the  killing  was 
conclusive  that  the  victim  had  been  assaulted  without 
proper  cause  and  cruelly  murdered.  The  defendant  entered 
no  plea  of  justification  nor  a  denial  of  the  crime  charged 
to  him,  as  neither  of  these  pleas  would  have  availed  anything 


326  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

in  the  face  of  such  strong  and  corroborative  testimony  as 
had  been  submitted.  Logan  had  studied  the  case  thoroughly, 
and  was  not  to  be  caught  in  court  without  a  plausible  defense 
for  his  client.  He  therefore  had  summouned  the  Coroner 
and  physicians  who  made  a  post-mortem  examination  on  the 
body  of  the  murdered  man,  and  made  these  his  witnesses. 
By  them  he  proved  that  the  wound  found  on  deceased  had 
been  produced  by  a  sharp  instrument,  presumably  a  knife; 
that  the  cut  was  located  in  the  lumbar  region,  extending  in 
ward  and  through  the  spleen ;  that  no  other  wound  of  any 
character  was  found  on  the  body.  Logan  now  took  it  upon 
himself  to  show  that  the  spleen  is  an  organ  the  exact  use  of 
which  is  unknown  ;  that  it  was  neither  vital  nor  strictly  es 
sential,  but  on  the  contrary  that  it  might  be  removed  with 
out  producing  any  material  consequence,  and,  therefore,  tin- 
wound  received  by  the  deceased  could  not  have  produced 
his  death.  Of  course,  there  was  no  doubt  but  that  the  man 
had  been  murdered,  and  that  he  had  died  of  the  wound 
which  defendant  had  given  him,  but  Logan  so  changed  the 
conditions  and  burdens  of  proof  which  had  before  been  so 
positive,  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  jury  to  find  a  verdict 
more  serious  than  "  assault  to  kill,"  on  which  the  defendant 
received  a  short  term  in  the  penitentiary.  This  was  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  criminal  jurisprudence  that  such  a 
defense  had  been  made,  which  illustrates  the  resource,  origin 
nality  and  analytical  discernment  of  Logan  as  a  lawyer. 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  327 


CHAPTER  V. 

• 

As  a  lawyer,  Logan  achieved  reputation,  won  by  his  mas 
terful  eloquence,  keen  wit,  and  thorough  familiarity  with  all 
the  intricacies  of  his  profession.  I  recall  now  several  speeches 
which  I  heard  him  deliver  in  the  court  house  of  my  native 
town,  Golconda,  though  at  the  time  I  was  a  young  boy.  Ex 
cept  during  the  period  that  he  was  prosecuting  attorney,  Lo 
gan  was  chiefly  engaged  in  criminal  cases  and  invariably  for 
the  defense.  One  particular  case  in  which  he  thus  appeared 
is  vividly  impressed  on  my  memory  and  will  remain  so  through 
life,  though  my  age  then  could  scarcely  have  exceeded  ten 
years. 

Golconda  was  a  sleepy  little  town  of  less  than  one  thou 
sand  people,  that  only  received  animation  twice  each  year, 
during  the  spring  and  fall  terms  of  court,  except  when  an 
occasional  circus  spread  its  tent,  On  these  occasions  court 
house  square  was  invariably  thickly  occupied  by  country 
teams  and  horses,  while  the  ginger-cake,  cider,  auction  and 
stereopticon  men  howled  their  wares  before  gaping  crowds. 
Court  had  been  in  seaaion  for  two  or  three  days,  well  at 
tended  as  usual ;  upon  adjournment  one  afternoon  a  number 
of  men  lingered  in  the  court-room,  among  whom  was  a  lusty 
fellow  named  Green  Wommack  and  an  elderly,  very  corpu- 
lant  man  named  Bagley,  both  residents  of  Pope  County  and, 
I  think,  near  neighbors.  These  two  got  into  a  dispute  which 
culminated  in  Wommack  knocking  old  man  Bagley  down 
and  kicking  him  to  death.  This  murder  fairly  set  Golconda 
aflame,  people  rushed  hither  and  thither  crying,  "  lynch  the 
scoundrel,"  "burn  him,"  "shoothim,"  etc.  The  body  of 


328  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  murdered  man  was  carried  into  a  warehouse  opposite 
and  covered  with  a  sheet,  while  a  score  or  more  men  started 
after  the  murderer,  who  had  lied  upon  realizing  what  lie  had 
done.  I  never  saw  the  body  of  old  man  Bagley,  except  as 
it  was  covered  with  a  sheet,  but  the  impression  which  this 
sight  produced  has  in  no  wise  faded  from  my  memory,  for 
I  remember  that  it  caused  me  many  sleepless  nights  and  ter 
rible  nightmares. 

Wommack  was  not  apprehended  until  some  weeks  after 
the  murder,  when  he  was  brought  to  town  and  put  into  the 
old  log  jail  amid  general  execration.  Old  settlers  would  re 
call  the  fact  that  there  had  not  been  a  hanging  in  Pope  Coun 
ty  since  1832,  when  a  fellow  named  Sheets  was  officially  exe 
cuted  from  a  sleeper  in  the  bridge  over  Lusk  Creek,  and  then 
gleefully  predict  another  before  many  more  months  should 
expire,  for  every  one  believed  that  Green  Wommack  would 
certainly  be  introduced  to  the  hangman  of  Pope  County. 

Wommack  remained  securely  imprisoned  until  the  next 
term  of  court,  when  it  was  announced  that  John  A.  Logan 
had  been  engaged  to  defend  the  prisoner,  who  would  be  ready 
for  trial  when  the  case  should  be  called.  Immediately  upon 
this  announcement  opinion  began  to  change;  those  who  for 
a  long  time  confidently  expected  to  witness  the  execution 
of  the  prisoner,  commenced  to  hedge  and  form  a  directly 
opposite  belief.  It  was  now  the  general  impression  that 
however  guilty  a  wretch  might  be  he  could  never  be  con 
victed  with  John  A.  Logan  defending  him.  " 

The  day  of  trial  at  length  arrived,  and  I  remember  that  it 
attracted  a  greater  crowd  than  any  circus  I  ever  saw  in  (Jol- 
conda,  which  is  putting  a  very  large  estimate  on  the  draw 
ing  qualities  of  that  occasion.  People  came  from  a  distance 
of  fifty  miles  to  hear  Logan's  speech;  the  court-house  fence 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  331 

was  not  only  crowded  all  round  with  horses  and  vehicles,  but 
hundreds  of  persons  went  into  camp  on  the  creek  bottom, 
and  private  families  and  stables  were  filled  with  visiting  ac 
quaintances  and  their  horses  and  oxen.  In  those  days  there 
were  more  oxen  used  for  draft  purposes  in  Pope  and  adjoin 
ing  counties  than  there  were  horses. 

Of  course,  not  one  twentieth  part  of  all  these  people  could 
crowd  into  the  small  court-house,  but  they  were  all  willing 
to  take  their  chances,  and  by  day-light  on  the  morning  of 
the  trial  hundreds  ran  to  the  building  to  secure  seats,  and 
these  patiently  remained  until  the  trial  was  called  at  ten 
o'clock.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  secure  a  position  on  the 
base  of  a  high  window  which  opened  at  the  back  of  the  jury 
box,  and  though  it  was  anything  but  comfortable  the  pre 
emption  was  too  valuable  for  me  to  vacate. 

Little  time  was  consumed  in  preliminaries,  there  were  sev 
eral  witnesses,  but  each  one  told  the  same  story,  and  every 
theory  pointed  to  a  malicious  murder,  absolutely  indefensible. 
The  defense  introduced  one  or  two  witnesses,  I  believe,  who 
testified  to  some  difficulty  that  had  occurred  between  the 
murderer  and  his  victim  some  time  before  the  crime,  but 
if  I  remember  rightly  it  was  a  trivial  matter  that  really  cut 
no  figure  in  the  case  ;  there  was,  therefore,  nothing  for  the 
defense  to  stand  upon.  The  prosecuting  attorney  made  a 
speech  of  some  length,  picturing  all  the  horrible  aspects  of 
an  unprovoked  murder  such  as  Wommack  had  committed, 
until  I  saw  the  prisoner's  face  blanch  with  abject  terror. 

The  time  for  Logan  to  speak  now  arrived.  A  hush  fell 
upon  the  scene  ;  his  handsome  face  lighted  with  the  full  as 
surance  of  his  triumph,  and  his  brilliant,  piercing  black 
eyes,  danced  and  gave  play  to  a  laughter  which  his  grave 
mouth  refused  to  voice.  There  was  a  majesty  about  his 


332  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

figure,   a  magnetic  influence  issuing  from  his  person,    th 
seemed  to  both  awe  and  fascinate  the  audience. 

He  stood  for  a  minute  or  more  surveying  the  jury  befo 
beginning  to  speak,  and  my  remembrance  is  that  he  had  n 
been  speaking  five  minutes  before  he  had  the  entire  auc 
ence,  including  judge  and  jury,  convulsed  with  laugh tc 
Judge  Sloan  was  on  the  bench,  a  naturally  grave  man,  litt 
given  to  joking,  but  even  he  could  not  resist  the  hum 
which  Logan  distributed  by  quaint,  strong  and  amusing  w 
This  was  his  policy  for  breaking  the  effect  of  the  prosecutii 
attorney's  speech  and  the  prejudice  which  had  so  strong 
prevailed  against  his  client.  He  next,  in  language  such  as 
never  before  or  since  heard  fall  from  mortal  lips,  began 
search  for  the  sympathies  of  those  in  whose  hands  was  t 
life  of  Wommack  ;  he  drew  pictures  appealing  to  mercy 
strong  that  every  heart  seemed  to  melt  with  pity,  and  eve 
eye  flowed  fast  with  tears.  Those  who  heard  his  speech  fc 
got  that  there  was,  or  ever  had  been  a  guilt-stained  wretch  a; 
murderer ;  forgot  that  blood  was  then  crying  from  the  grou; 
for  atonement;  they  heard  instead  such  tender  words,  su 
compassionate  phrases,  such  beautiful  discriptions  of  mer 
and  rewards  which  bless  humankind  that  at  its  conclusii 
there  remained  something  like  the  dying  melody  of  soi 
sweet  song  that  has  brought  forth  music  from  every  gamut 
the  human  heart. 

Logan  concluded  this  forensic  effort  amid  the  wild  a 
plause  of  an  appeased  and  thoroughly  forgiving  audienc 
The  jury  scarcely  retired  before  they  returned  to  the  com 
room  with  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty,  "  and  so  completely  hi 
the  atrociousness  of  the  crime  been  dissipated  by  Logan 
speech  that  everyone  declared  it  a  righteous  one. 

I  might  multiply  examples  of   this  kind  to  illustrate  tl 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  333 

dramatic  power  and  marvellous  eloquence  of  this  great  mas 
ter  of  effective  speech.  As  a  jury  lawyer,  I  sincerely  be 
lieve  John  A.  Logan  never  had  his  equal  in  all  the  history 
of  American  jurisprudence.  There  was  more  than  eloquence 
in  his  speech,  more  than  magnetism  in  his  eye  ;  for  there 
|  seemed  to  be  a  charm  about  his  entire  person  that  charged 
his  audiences  with  electricity  until  he  had  only  to  touch  the 
positive  pole  to  make  them  answer  to  the  feelings  he  sought 
to  play  upon.  He  always  spoke  withnsuch  earnestness,  and 
had  the  happy  faculty  of  such  precise  statement  that  he 
produced  a  favorable  impression  of  his  correctness,  and 
then  brought  his  hearers  into  settled  conclusion  with  him  by 
irresistible  eloquence.  This  is  the  character  of  the  tactics 
he  still  employs,  which  has  made  him  confessedly  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  effective  speakers,  not  only  on  the  stump 
but  in  the  Senate  halls  at  Washington  as  well. 


334  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 


CHAPTER  VT. 

John  A.  Logan,  up  to  the  inauguration  of  hostilities  b 
^outh,  was  a  strong  and  consistent  advocate  of  Democ 
nicy;  he  belonged  to  the  Jacksonian  school,  inheriting  th 
first  principles  of  thu,t  party  from  his  father  and  being  mor 
grounded  in  his  belief  of  their  correctness  by  study  and  as 
soeiation  in  after  years.  In  1860  he  therefore  gave  hi 
most  earnest  support  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who  was  hi 
friend  and  archetype.  When,  however,  Lincoln  was  elected 
and  events  of  the  succeeding  year  were  forshadowed  in  th 
attitude  of  the  South,  Logan's  patriotism,  which  could  no 
be  subordinated  to  partizanship,  asserted  itself,  and  h 
openly  declared  that  while  he  had  labored  and  hoped  for  Lin 
coin's  defeat,  yet  if  his  election  should  provoke  an  outbreal 
of  the  hostile  Southern  sentiment  he  would  shoulder  a  mus 
kot  to  have  him  inaugurated.  This  lofty  expression  of  sen 
timent  he  voiced  on  the  floor  of  Congress  in  January,  1861 
Like  Douglas,  Logan  was  quick  to  perceive  the  evil  tenden 
cies  of  that  feeling,  intensified  in  the  South,  which  threat 
ened  the  nation,  and  when  he  saw  that  the  Democrats  wer 
both  secretly  and  overtly  encouraging  the  South  to  seced 
he  raised  his  voice  in  protest,  and  when  words  were  useles 
he  rushed  to  the  front  of  battle. 

At  the  time  of  which  I  now  write,  nearly  all  of  Souther 
Illinois  favored  Secession :   there  were  towns,  and  countie 
too,  perhaps,  in  which  a  majority  were  firm  Unioni- 
the  Southern  sympathizers  were   numerous  enough  to  hav 
carried  the  day  on  a  te>t  vote.    Logan's  people  were  intense!, 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  335 

Democratic,  radically  rebellious,  and  when  they  learned  that 
he  had  resigned  his  seat  in  Congress  July  21st,  joined  a  Michi 
gan  regiment  as  a  private  and  participated  in  the  first  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  they  were  ready  to  repudiate  him.  Others,  with 
out  the  pale  of  relationship,  pronounced  him  a  traitor  who 
had  sold  his  birthright  to  the  Abolitionists  and  deserved 

i  ignoring  and  political  death.  In  fact,  no  words  in  the  cate 
gory  of  calumny  were  too  severe  for  Jackson  county  Demo 
crats  to  utter  against  him. 

Fortified  by  the  justice  of  his  cause,  the  hopes  of  a  pa 
triot,  his  love  for  his  country,  Logan  was  not  to  be  influ 
enced  by  clamor,  threats,  or  fears  of  losing  political  pres 
tige  ;  he  saw  only  the  hideous  visage  of  Secession  show 
ing  its  poisonous  fangs  and  heard  the  danger  rattle;  this 
overcame  the  small  restraint  of  office  and  erring  friends. 
When  the  blood-red  sun  threw  its  last  shadows  over  Bull 
Run,  where  treason  had  wounded  justice,  Logan  brooded 

I  with  deepest  melancholy,  but  not  with  waning  courage.  He 
saw  that  to  put  down  the  rebellion  more  help  was  required; 
that  instead  of  75,000  men  on  a  ninety  day  campaign,  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  must  be  brought  against  the  enemy  for 
an  indefinite  term.  Thus  he  wrote  and  spoke  to  fire  the 
Northern  heart,  and  then  boldly  resolved  to  go  into  the 
very  midst  of  his  threatening  people  and  raise  a  regiment 
for  the  Union  service.  When  he  reached  Murphy sboro,  in 
stead  of  being  received  by  bands  of  music  and  welcoming 
committees,  he  was  jeered  and  threatened. 

A  company  was  being  organized  in  the  town  for  the  Con 
federate  service,  and  was  almost  completed;  among  the 
enlisted  men  was  Thomas  Logan,  and  many  other  relatives, 
while  Mr.  Cunningham,  John  A.  Logan's  father-in-law,  and 
his  son  Hibe,  were  hurrahing  for  the  new  Confederacy. 


336  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

As  Logarl  walked  up  the  street  one  of  the  newly-enlisted 
men  called  him  a  traitor.  Thomas  Logan  heard  the  remark, 
and  though  it  was  an  expression  of  his  own  real  sentiment, 
he  promptly  knocked  his  soldier  comrade  down.  Great  ex 
citement  followed,  and  there  was  talk  of  lynching  'slack 
Logan,  the  traitor,"  as  he  was  called,  but  Jack  Logan  never 
knew  the  feeling  that  fear  inspires,  and  with  resolute  pur 
pose  denounced  every  Southern  sympathizer  as  a  rebel,; 
damnable  to  the  sight  of  all  true  patriots.  Upon  the  principle 
that  blood  is  stronger  than  water,  Thomas  Logan  was  drawn 
to  his  brother  by  the  danger  that  he  saw  threatening,  and  as 
heaven  never  kissed,  with  glowing  sun-light,  braver  hearts 
than  beat  within  the  bosoms  of  Tom  and  Jack  Logan,  there 
was  no  company  of  men  resolute  enough  to  attempt  their 
lives  or  liberties.  James  Logan,  another  brother,  was  the 
only  one  of  the  family,  except  Jack,  who  was  in  favor  of 
the  Union  at  any  price,  and  at  the  request  of  Jack,  he  went 
to  a  settlement  in  the  northern  part  of  Jackson  county  to 
enlist  volunteers  for  the  Union  army,  where  he  succeeded  in 
getting  together  about  a  dozen  men  and  took  them  to 
Marion.  Jack  Logan,  followed  by  Thomas,  also  went  to 
Marion,  where  a  second  company  was  being  made  up  for 
the  Confederate  service.  Thorndyke  Brooks,  a  brother-in- 
law  to  Josh  Allen,  now  of  Baltimore,  had  already  taken 
eighteen  men  South,  and  left  Lindolph  Osborn  to  enlist  and 
take  South  enough  more  to  complete  a  full  company,  about 
fifty  of  the  number  being  then  already  enlisted,  partly  uni 
formed  and  nearly  ready  for  departure.  Osborne  had  btvn 
a  comrade  of  Logan's  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  was  so  de 
voted  in  his  friendship  that  he  suffered  Logan  to  argue  with 
him  against  taking  up  arms  against  his  country.  Osborne 
at  first  replied  with  some  heat,  but  became  more  calm  and 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  337 

promised  to  consider  the  matter  another  day.  On  the  fol 
lowing  day  Logan  addressed  an  assembly  of  people  in  the 
public  square  of  Marion. 

There  were  between  five  and  six  thousand  persons  pres 
ent,  and  of  this  number  it  may  be  safely  said  that  nine- 
tenths  of  them  were  howlers  for  Southern  independence. 
They  were  all  familiar  with  Logan,  knew  his  strong  Dem 
ocratic  proclivities,  and  could  not  conceive  how  he  could 
desert  them  and  go  over  to  the  Abolitionists ;  they  had  never 
studied  the  questions  involved,  being  content  to  follow 
where  so-called  Democracy  should  lead,  and  to  condemn 
every  tongue  and  every  principle  that  was  not  in  consonance 
with  their  inherited  political  faith.  They,  therefore,  stood 
ready  to  expatriate  Logan,  whom  they  had  honored  only  to 
find  him,  as  they  declared,  false  to  his  kinsmen,  people  and 
principles.  When  he  arose  to  begin  his  speech  confusion 
at  once  followed,  so  that  for  several  minutes  he  could  not 
make  himself  heard;  but  his  magnificent  and  magnetic 
presence,  standing  like  an  armed  hero  to  confront  his  ac 
cusers,  at  length  awed  the  angry  crowd  into  attention.  He 
waited  then,  still  in  that  commanding  attitude,  until  the 
vast  assemblage  became  anxious  to  hear  him,  when  he  broke 
forth  in  such  a  passionate  appeal  to  the  loyalty  and  patriot 
ism  of  his  hearers,  apotheosizing  the  old  flag  and  his  beloved 
country,  that  they  forgot  their  Democracy  in  their  enthusi 
asm  for  one  flag  and  one  country.  He  educated  his  audi 
ence  in  the  tenets  of  Republicanism  by  glowing  eulogy  and 
startling  illustration,  and  so  eloquently  explained  his  own 
political  course  that  the  entire  crowd  cheered  to  the  echo, 
and  shouted  their  hurrahs  for  Logan  until  the  very  welkin 
rang  with  the  echo  of  his  name.  When  he  concluded  this 
two  hours'  speech  the  people  gathered  around  him  with  an 


338  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

admiration  he  had  never  before  excited  in  them ;  those  who 
were  crying  for  his  life  a  few  hours  before,  were  now  his 
staunch  friends  again,  and  in  this  short  time,  too,  they  were 
weaned  from  Democracy  and  had  adopted  Republicanism. 

Having  overcome  the  prejudices  of  his  constituents,  Logan 
proposed  the  formation  of  a  regiment  for  the  Union  service, 
and  strange  enough  the  first  one  to  enroll  his  name  was 

O  D 

Lindolph  Osborne,  followed  by  all  the  men  he  had  enlisted 
for  the  Southern  army.  A  company  was  formed  in  a  few 
minutes,  and  leaving  another  party  to  continue  the  enlist 
ment,  Logan  went  to  Jonesboro  where  he  repeated  his  suc 
cess,  and  made  up  a  company  which  was  headed  by  James 
Provo,  and  then  continued  speaking  and  enlisting  through 
out  his  district  until  the  grand  old  Thirty-first  Illinois  Reg 
iment  had  its  full  quota  of  men,  of  which  he  was  commis 
sioned  Colonel. 

This  is  the  authentic  history  of  Logan's  first  steps  after 
war  was  declared,  and  yet  bold,  patriotic  and  honorable  as 
was  his  manly  course,  the  creatures  of  malice  and  jealous 
malignity  have  charged  that  Logan's  first  sympathies  for 
the  Southern  cause  were  so  strong  that  he  raised  a  company 
for  the  Confederate  service;  that  this  foul  falsehood  might 
the  more  readily  deceive,  a  poor  villain  named  Wheatley, 
a  refugee  from  the  South,  an  inmate  of  the  Cairo  hospital, 
was  induced,  by  what  unholy  means  I  know  not,  to  make 
affidavit  that  he  was  one  of  the  men  who  had  enlisted  under 
Logan  to  help  support  the  Confederate  cause.  I  may  also 
add  that  this  report  was  circulated  largely  by  Hibe  Cun 
ningham,  a  recalcitrant  brother-in-law,  who  was  a  red-hot 
(so  to  speak)  Confederate  in  sentiment  and  a  generous  hater 
of  the  generous  Logan,  though  their  admiration  in  this  re 
spect  was  mutual.  Cunningham  died  about  seven  yeaix 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  339 

ago,  but  long  previous  to  his  death  he  admitted  having  cir 
culated  the  falsehood  to  injure  his  brother-in-law  politically. 
There  is  also  a  malicious  fiction  emanating  from  the  lips 
of  his  enemies,  to  the  effect  that  Gen.  Logan's  sister  and 
his  brother  have  both  denounced  him  as  a  turn-coat,  a  traitor, 
and  confirming  the  story  of  his  original  Southern  sympathy. 
I  am  personally  acquainted  with  Gen.  Logan's  sister  and 
both  his  brothers.  James  was  always  a  Republican,  or  that 
is  since  Lincoln's  inauguration,  and  he  was  always  devoted 
to  his  brother.  Thomas  Logan  and  his  sister,  now  Mrs. 
Rogers,  are  Democrats  now  and  always  have  been,  but  so 
far  from  ever  having  denounced  their  distinguished  brother, 
on  any  occasion,  they  have  always  admired  his  brilliant 
genius  and  loved  him  with  an  affection  commendable  to  their 
relationship.  I  had,  from  their  own  lips,  a  most  positive 
denial,  amounting  to  indignation  at  such  a  suggestion,  of 
all  the  charges  I  have  here  sought  to  disprove  against  the 
most  gallant  son  that  Illinois  now  acknowledges,  and  as  true 
a  patriot  as  ever  drew  a  sword  in  defence  of  his  country. 
In  concluding  this  chapter,  I  want  to  say,  unequivocally,  that 
had  it  not  been  for  the  personal  influence  of  John  A,  Logan, 
Southern  Illinois  would  have  sent  many  entire  regiments 
into  the  Confederate  service. 


340  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  VII. 

I  would  not  detract  from  the  honors  won  by  any  of  the 
battle-scarred  regiments  that  have  returned  from  fields  of 
carnage  to  fields  of  ripeninggrain,  for  glory  sits  with  jocund 
feature  upon  the  stained  and  riven  banners  of  them  all, 
but  I  will  be  pardoned  for  speaking  especially  laudatory 
of  the  brave  men  who  composed  the  Thirty-first  Illinois,  that 
were  led  by  *' Intrepid  Jack."  It  was  theirs  to  link  steel 
with  sturdy  foes,  and  read  fate  by  the  light  of  blazing  rifles, 
theirs  to  leap  into  desperate  breaches,  close  up  bloody  gaps, 
rally  under  fire,  and  pluck  victory  from  death-streaming 
parapets.  And  they  did  not  flinch,  nor  blanche,  nor  stand 
still  in  doubt,  but  they  followed  where  their  hero  leader  led. 

It  was  in  September,  1861,  that  the  Thirty-first  Illinois 
was  organized,  and  went  into  camp  at  Cairo  to  drill  and 
await  orders,  and  was  attached  to  Gen.  McClernand's  divis 
ion.  It  received  its  baptism  of  fire  at  Belmont,  on  Novem 
ber  7th,  only  seven  weeks  after  organizing,  and  it  was  on 
this  battle-ground  that  Logan  showed  his  military  genius. 
This  was  a  fight  that  first  taught  our  troops  the  consequence 
of  surprises,  and  but  for  the  intrepid  Logan  the  battle 
would  have  proved  worse  than  the  Bull  Run  disaster. 

Belmont  is  nearly  opposite  the  town  of  Columbus,  Ken 
tucky,  which  was  the  first  blockade  the  Confederates  had 
below  Cairo,  and  was  garrisoned  by  about  25,000  troops 
under  Gen.  Polk,  while  Belmont  was  held  by  about  2,f>00 
Confederates  under  Gen.  Tappan.  Gen  McClernand  was  dis- 
pached,  on  the  evening  of  Nov.  6th,  with  5,000  men,  to  make 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  343 

reconnoisance  and  to  this  end  embarked  nine  miles  below 

}airo,  so  as  to  make  a  stealthy  approach  upon  the   enemy 

om  the  rear.     In  the  meantime  Gen.  Smith,  commanding 

Paducah,  had  been  ordered  by  Gen.  Grant  to  take  a  con- 

derable  force  and  make  a  demonstration  near  Columbus,  in 

der  to  lead  the  Confederates  to  suppose  that  a   combined 

tack  was   contemplated  on  that  place,  which   fully   suc- 

eded.     In  this  way  the   enemy  was  entirely  put  off  his 

uard  as  to  Belmont,  the  real  point  of  attack. 

On  the  morning  of  Nov.  7th,  McClernand's  force  appeared 

i  the  river  bank  near  Belmont  and  began   driving  in   the 

onfederate  sentries  and  outposts.     A  reserve  battalion  was 

ft  near  the  transports,  while  two  companies  were  sent  out  as 

drmishers  to  bring  on  the  engagement.      Gen.    Polk   now 

eing  that  even  if  Columbus  were  the  object  of  principal 

tack,  Tappan  must  be  supported,  sent  Gen.  Pillow  across 

his  relief.  Gen.  Logan  rode  at  the  head  of  the  then 
w  31st,  and  seeing  that  re-enforcements  would  soon 
ach  the  enemy,  begged  McClernand  to  order  a  charge  that 
ould  crush  the  enemy  at  once.  This  McClemand  refused 

do,  overestimating  Tappan' s  strength,  but  directed  his 
tentiom  to  cutting  off  the  re-enforcements,  himself  taking^ 
arge  of  the  right  wing  while  Logan  was  to  attack  the 
nter.  A  terrific  contest  resulted,  which  lasted  for  over  half 
i  hour.  Betzhoven  held  McClernand  in  check,  but  Logan 
oke  the  enemy's  center  and  sent  the  Confederates  flying  in 
sorder  over  the  field,  obliging  Pillow  to  bring  up  his  reserve 
tillery  of  three  batteries;  these  unlimbering,  checked 
)gan's  advance  until  the  two  wings  could  be  reunited. 
How  now  realized  that  his  position  was  critical,  and  sent  a 
3ssage  to  Polk  for  more  troops,  but  Polk  still  believed  that 
<)lumbus  was  threatened  and  refused  the  aid  so  badly 


344  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

needed.  Logan  now  suggested  a  general  onslaught,  whicl 
was  adopted  by  McClernand,  and  the  battle  was  begun  agah 
with  renewed  violence.  Logan  was  in  front,  with  his  long 
hair  streaming  in  the  wind,  and  with  brandished  swore 
shouting,  "Come  on,  31st  Illinois."  Inspired  by  his  gal. 
hint  conduct,  the  bold  initiates  followed  their  leader  am 
drove  the  enemy  from  tree  to  tree,  foot  by  foot,  am 
finally  pell  mell  down  the  river  bank  and  under  protectioi 
of  the  guns  from  Columbus,  cutting  Pillow's  division  sc 
severely  that  he  was  unable  to  reform  it  into  companies. 

At  this  point  the  enemy  was  re-enforced  by  4,500  fresh  mei 
who  threw  themselves  against  McClernand  in  front,  flant 
and  rear,  and  threatened  to  cut  him  off  from  his  transports 
McClernand  was  therefore  forced  to  slowly  retreat  until  hi* 
reserves  were  reached,  where  fresh  troops  and  more  artillery 
were  brought  into  action,  and  the  battle  was  re-commenced, 
Logan  having  cut  through  and  followed  the  fleeing  enemy, 
was  suddenly  confronted  by  re-enforcements  under  Gen, 
Cheatham.  Nothing  now  but  desperate  chances  could  save 
his  command,  which  was  opposed  by  overwhelming  odds, 
Ordering  his  men  to  lie  down,  until  by  strategy  the  enemy'!: 
fire  was  drawn,  Logan  sounded  the  charge,  leading  it  with 
those  same  words,  "Come  on,"  he  swept  through  the  op 
posing  ranks  like  an  avalanche,  and  reformed  speedily  ID 
the  enemy's  rear,  with  a  junction  completed  with  Grant.  A 
murderous  fire  was  now  opened  upon  the  Confederates  who 
were  still  crossing  the  river  from  Columbus,  which  was  an 
swered  by  the  guns  from  the  fortifications  as  the  scattered 
Confederates  massed  or  retreated  to  the  river  bank.  There 
were  now  fully  13,000  rebels  opposing  5,000  Union  troops, 
and  so  disposed  that  while  there  was  victory  in  one  part  of 
the  field,  defeat  was  taking  place  in  another.  Besides,  our 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  347 

troops  had  been  continuously  engaged  from  ten  o'clock  in 
the  morning  until  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  were 
nearly  exhausted.  Re-enforcements  continually  arrived 
to  support  the  enemy,  and  it  became  necessary  to  retreat 
with  activity  to  avoid  disaster.  To  do  this,  Logan  was  or 
dered  to  protect  the  rear,  which  he  did  with  great  gallantry 
and  success.  Seeing  a  weakness  on  the  Confederate  left,  he 
made  a  charge  with  such  impetuosity  that  he  broke  their  line 
and  captured  one  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners,  thus  giving  a 
brilliant  finish  to  a  desperate  battle  that  developed  from  a 
reconnoissance.  Our  troops  reached  their  transports  in  good 
order  and  embarked  for  Cairo  with  the  prisoners  Col.  Logan 
had  so  felicitously  captured.  Our  losses  in  this  engagement 
were  about  three  hundred,  while  those  of  the  Confederates 
were  reported  as  two  thousand. 


348  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  battle  of  Belmont  fully  initiated  into  the  horror  and 
vicissitudes  of  war,  the  31st  Illinois,  and  a  desire  for  more 
glory  made  them  restless  to  go  upon  other  fields  where  grow 
the  green  laurels  that  crown  heroes.  They  had  not  long  to 
wait,  for  Cairo  was  the  great  distributing  center  from  whence 
nearly  all  uianoeuvers  and  operations  in  the  western  depart 
ment  were  directed.  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  which 
blockaded  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  rivers  respectively, 
were  serious  obstacles  to  preventing  a  penetration  of  the 
Southern  States,  and  interposing  a  barrier  against  the  effec 
tive  operation  of  Buell  and  Halleck's  armies  in  Kentucky. 
It  was  therefore  decided  to  reduce  these  forts  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment  before  a  greater  concentration  of  Confed 
erate  troops  could  be  made  at  these  places.  To  mask  his 
real  purpose,  Gen.  Grant  continued  his  threatening  attitude 
towards  Columbus,  and  so  skillfuly  were  the  movements  of 
troops  conducted  that  Columbus  was  heavily  re-enforced  in 
anticipation  of  a  daily  attack.  Suddenly,  after  making  a 
formidable  demonstration  in  the  vicinity  of  Columbus,  the 
Federal  forces  were  returned  to  Cairo  and  from  thence 
moved  towards  Ft.  Henry.  Gen.  Buell  had  just  achieved  a 
victory  at  Mill  Springs,  and  moving  southward  led  to  an  im 
mediate  supposition  that  an  advance  into  Tennessee  by  way  of 
Knoxville,  was  contemplated,  and  the  Confederates  at  once 
begun  massing  in  that  vicinity.  This  served  to  largely  dis 
count  the  advantages  which  had  been  gained  by  drawing  large 
forces  of  the  enemy  into  Columbus,  from  points  which  our 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  349 

roops  desired  to  occupy.  The  President's  order  was,  how- 
ver,  for  making  an  advance  all  along  the  line  from  Ma- 
assas  to  Columbus,  and  delay  was  therefore  not  permitted. 

Gen.  Grant  commanding,  moved  up  the  Tennessee  under 
lorn.  Foote's  flotilla  of  seven  gun  boats.  Keaching  the  vi- 
nity  of  Ft.  Henry,  a  reconnoissance  was  made  by  the  boats 
^r  the  purpose  of  getting  the  range  of  the  batteries,  in  which 
ktempt  the  steamer  Essex  was  pierced  with  a  thirty-two  pound 
lot,  which,  however,  did  little  damage.  On  Thursday,  the 
th  of  February,  1862,  Commodore  Foote  opened  on  the 
ort  from  the  steamers  Essex,  Carondelet,  Cincinnati,  St. 
^ouis,  Conestoga,  Tyler  and  Lexington,  and  at  the  same 
ime  a  column  consisting  of  eleven  regiments  of  McCler- 
and's  division  were  marched  to  a  point  on  the  road  leading 
3  Dover,  while  ten  regiments  under  Gen.  F.  C.  Smith  that 
ad  camped  at  Fort  Heiman,  moved  out  and  the  two  forces 
onsolidated  for  a  simultaneous  attack  with  the  gun  boats, 
jogan  was  there  with  his  flashing  sword,  keen  eye  and  brave 
eart,  leading  and  cheering  his  men,  a  conspicuous  and 
hcering  figure.  When  the  gunboats  opened  their  fire  there 
ollowed  quickly  a  rattle  of  musketry,  but  a  charge  upon 
he  fort  was  impossible  by  reason  of  its  location,  being  sur- 
ounded  by  water.  The  fight  lasted  less  than  an  hour,  how- 
ver,  as  Gen.  Tilghman,  the  Confederate  commander,  saw 
lat  the  fort  could  not  long  hold  out,  and  that  if  he  did  not 
vail  himself  of  the  opportunity  for  escape  very  soon,  his 
rmy  must  surrender. 

With  the  capture  of  Ft.  Henry,  Alabama  was  open  to  our 
>rces,  and  it  now  only  remained  to  break  the  blockade  at 
)over  to  lay  open  the  whole  of  Tennesee  and  the  South. 

Six  days  were  unavoidably  lost  on  account  of  repairs  nec- 
>sary  to  the  gun-boats  that  had  been  injured  in  the  action 


350  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 

at  Ft.  Henry,  so  that  it  was  not  until  the  12th  that  Col.  Mo 
Clernand  and  Smith's  divisions  of  20,000  men,  including  11 
batteries  and  1,500  cavalry,  started  for  Ft.  Donelson,  twelve 
miles  distant  from  Ft.  Henry.  On  the  following  day  th< 
army  encamped  in  front  of  the  fort  and  begun  skirmishing 
to  test  the  enemy's  strength  and  to  find  his  line  of  works, 
which,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  ground,  was  difficult  tc 
do.  The  Confederate  pickets  were  pushed  back  to  their  de 
fenses  and  our  army  rested  on  the  night  of  the  13th,  on  s 
line  in  general  parallelism  with  that  of  the  enemy. 

During  the  night  batteries  were  posted  in  the  most  favor 
able  positions  then  accessible,  and  on  the  following  morning 
at  break  of  day,  it  was  the  intention  to  begin  the  battle,  bul 
none  of  the  gun-boats  had  yet  arrived,  and  it  was  therefore 
necessary  to  keep  up  a  demonstration  merely,  without  as 
saulting,  and  wait  until  a  combined  attack  from  land  anc 
water  could  be  made.  Birge's  sharp-shooters,  however,  toot 
a  position  within  300  yards  of  the  lower  line  of  fortifications, 
and  begun  their  effective  service,  while  the  Illinois  troops 
took  positions, at  night,  as  near  as  the  nature  of  the  grounc 
would  then  allow. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th  the  gun-boats  having  arrived, 
the  battle  opened  with  great  earnestness  by  an  advance  of  the 
Illinois  regiments,  followed  by  the  Fourteenth  Iowa  and  the 
Twenty-fifth  Indiana,  who,  despite  a  withering  fire  from  the 
intrenchments,  pushed  across  the  ravine  which  separated 
their  first  position  from  the  fortifications  up  to  within  forty 
rods  of  the  enemy.  Logan  headed  the  noble  Thirty-first 
over  the  thick  brush  which  impeded  the  charge,  and  almost 
to  the  blazing  rifles  that  mowed  down  his  men.  No  amount 
of  courage  could  withstand  such  murderous  fire,  and  the  at 
tacking  regiments  gave  way.  Speedily  reforming,  however, 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  353 

they  rushed  again  to  the  breech  and  bared  their  heroic  bos 
oms  to  that  dreadful  storm  of  hail.  Always  where  the  storm 
was  heaviest,  rode  the  gallant  Logan,  and  in  this  second 
charge  he  defied  death  in  his  bold  resolve  to  do  his  duty 
as  a  soldier  and  patriot.  But  again  the  cyclone  of  death 
blew  too  dreadfully  for  human  endurance,  and  discretion, 
which  goes  with  bravery,  demanded  that  the  troops  retire. 
Thrice  was  the  charge  led  by  Logan,  but  torn,  bleeding,  dec 
imated,  his  broken  columns  were  forced  to  fall  back  after 
an  unremitting  contest  of  more  than  an  hour's  duration. 
That  heroic  division  was  Oglesby's  brigade,  in  which  Logan 
had  identified  himself  not  alone  as  Colonel  but  as  the  most 
cheering  examples  of  gallantry  that  had  yet  been  given  in 
the  war. 

The  battle  extended  along  the  lines,  involving,  at  seven 
A.  M.,  two  regiments  of  W.  H.  L.  Wallace's  brigade,  sup 
porting  Oglesby  on  the  left.  These  were  the  Eleventh  and 
Twentieth  Illinois,  under  Ransom  and  Marsh.  A  Confeder 
ate  column  charged  up  the  hill  in  their  front,  and  gained  the 
road — the  one  west  of  the  river  road — but  were  repulsed, 
giving  way  to  a  fresh  line,  which  advanced  boldly  to  repeat 
the  assault.  Wallace  brought  nearly  his  entire  brigade,  con 
sisting  of  3,400  men,  upon  the  hill,  and,  with  the  assistance 
of  Taylor's  and  McAllister's  batteries,  again  and  again  drove 
back  the  defiant  foe. 

It  was  now  half  past  eight  o'clock,  and  re -enforcements 
from  the  center  of  the  line,  held  by  Lew.  Wallace, 
were  moving  past  to  the  extreme  right,  which,  bent  out  of 
its  original  line,  was  yet  obstinately  disputing  every  step  of 
ground.  Lew.  Wallace's  division  had  been  awakened  in  the 
morning  by  the  noise  of  battle  far  away  to  their  right,  and 
had  supposed  that  Oglesby  was  attacking  the  enemy.  At 


354  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 

eight  o'clock  a  message  came  from  McClernand  asking  for 
assistance.  Wallace  had  been  ordered  to  hold  the  center  at 
all  risks,  to  prevent  the  enemy's  escape  in  that  direction.  A 
messenger  was  dispatched  to  Grant's  head-quarters,  but  the 
latter  was  on  one  of  the  gun-boats,  consulting  with  Foote 
in  regard  to  the  possibilities  of  another  naval  attack.  Lew. 
Wallace,  receiving  a  second  and  more  urgent  message  from 
McClernand,  stating  that  his  flank  had  already  been  turned, 
sent  forthwith  Colonel  Cruft's  brigade.  This  brigade,  con 
sisting  of  two  Indiana  and  two  Kentucky  regiments,  moved 
on  to  the  woods  beyond  Taylor's  battery,  and  nearly  to  the 
extreme  right  of  the  line.  Here  it  became  engaged  with  a 
column  of  the  enemy  emerging  from  a  ravine  in  Oglesby's 
rear. 

Oglesby's  brigade,  which  had  held  on  till  the  last,  was 
now  getting  out  of  ammunition.  Graves'  battery,  from 
the  confederate  intrenchments,  had  now  more  effective 
range  than  it  had  had  all  the  morning,  and  thinned  the  ranks  at 
every  discharge.  In  good  order  the  brigade  gave  way, 
breaking  through  Cruft's  line  in  its  retreat,  and  leaving  the 
latter  fearfully  exposed  to  the  sweeping  fire  of  the  enemy's 
infantry  and  artillery.  Cruft  had  been  misled  by  his  guide, 
and  had  taken  a  position  too  far  to  the  right,  which  he  was 
soon  compelled  to  abaudon.  Every  thing  now  seemed  to 
depend  upon  the  steadfastness  of  W.  H.  L.  Wallace's  bri 
gade.  Upon  his  batteries,  from  three  separate  and  com 
manding  situations,  the  Confederate  artillery  was  pouring 
its  vials  of  wrath.  Looking  out  upon  his  right  hand,  he 
could  see  Pillow's  columns  already  pressing  upon  his  rear. 
Between  his  brigade  and  them  only  a  single  regiment  of  Og 
lesby's  command  remained  on  the  field.  That  regiment  was 
the  Thirty-first  Illinois,  commanded  by  Colonel  John  A. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  355 

Logan,  and  shattered  as  it  had  been,  its  spirit,  colors  and 
leader  were  still  there  shouldering  the  brunt  of  battle  and  deal 
ing  out  and  receiving  death.  Charging  again  and  again  un 
mindful  of  danger,  and  reckoning  of  victory  only,  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  galling  fire,  it  would  have  been  a  miracle 
had  Logan  escaped  injury;  nor  did  he,  fora  musket  ball 
went  crashing  through  his  thigh,  tearing  flesh  and  bone  and 
breaking  his  saddle  bow  ;  but  he  did  not  waver  ;  his  sword 
still  swung  on  high  and  his  brave  words,  "come  on," 
rolled  back  in  enthusiastic  echoes,  for  he  knew  that  the 
Thirty-first  would  follow.  Only  one  regiment,  on  whom 
devolved  the  fate  of  a  battle,  and  its  leader  shot  almost  to 
death ;  can  the  world  match  such  heroism  ?  In  a  moment  of 
the  battle's  quiet,  Logan  ordered  a  surgeon  to  dress  his  wound. 
It  was  only  rudely  bandaged  in  the  haste  of  fighting,  and  the 
surgeon  advised  him  to  seek  the  hospital;  that  his  wound  was 
very  dangerous  and  any  aggravation  of  it  would  almost 
surely  cause  death. 

Logan's  reply  was  worthy  of  a  Spartan:  "In  such  an 
hour  as  this  there  is  no  time  for  anything  but  fighting;  I 
have  fired  twenty-two  rounds  since  this  wound  was  received 
and  I  can  fire  as  many  more  now  that  it  is  dressed . ' '  With  this , 
by  his  orders,  he  was  assisted  back  into  the  saddle  and  again 
leading  on  the  brave  men  that  had  survived  the  leaden 
storms,  he  fought  with  unabated  fury  until  not  a  cartridge 
remained  with  one  of  his  followers. 

The  brigade  was  forced  to  fall  back,  which  it  did  sullenly, 
and  in  good  order,  until  they  refilled  their  cartridge-boxes. 
This  necessity  gave  the  Confederates  renewed  hopes,  and  for 
a  time  they  drove  our  troops  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  field. 
Between  Pillow's  advance  and  the  retiring  troops  Thayer's 
brigade  was  interposed,  being  advanced  to  the  tip  of  the 


356  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

ridge,  and  there  formed  in  a  line  at  right  angles  with  the  old 
one.  This  was  the  nucleus  for  a  new  front.  Wood's  bat 
tery,  a  portion  of  the  Chicago  light  artillery,  was  posted  in 
the  road  along  which  the  enemy  must  advance — at  its  right 
an  Illinois  and  Nebraska,  and  at  its  left  an  Illinois  and  Ohio 
regiment.  Two  Illinois  and  an  Ohio  regiment  were  held  in 
iv-iTve.  In  the  meantime,  McClernand's  men  were  refill 
ing  their  cartridge-boxes.  Cruft's  brigade  had  joined  Thay- 
er's  on  the  right,  and  Taylor's  battery  was  brought  to  bear 
on  the  enemy,  whose  advance  was  now  completely  checked. 
Now  the  waves  of  battle  began  to  flow  backward  against  the 
Confederates. 

At  three  o'clock  General  Grant  rode  up  the  hill  and 
ordered  an  advance  against  the  retiring  ranks  of  the  enemy. 
At  McClernand's  request,  Lew.  Wallace,  whose  troops  were 
comparatively  fresh,  undertook  the  assault.  Cruft's  bri 
gade,  headed  by  the  Eighth  Missouri  and  the  Eleventh  In 
diana,  from  Smith's  division,  with  two  Ohio  regiments  in  re 
serve,  formed  the  assailing  column.  The  ground  to  be 
gained  was  in  great  part  the  same  which  had  been  given  up 
in  the  forenoon.  Across  the  valley  or  extended  ravine  in 
Wallace's  front  was  the  ridge  which  had  been  last  yielded. 
Here  the  Confederates  were  re-forming  their  line.  Up  this 
ridge  a  charge  was  made  by  two  Missouri  and  Indiana  regi 
ments,  led  by  Colonel  M.  L.  Smith,  while  Cruft  moved 
around  the  base  of  the  hill  to  the  right.  Before  Smith  lay 
an  ascent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  "broken  by  out 
cropping  ledges  of  rock,  and,  for  the  most  part,  impeded  by 
dense  underbrush."  Cruft  had  to  make  his  way  around 
upon  the  enemy's  flank  through  brushwood.  At  intervals 
up  the  hill  Smith's  skirmishers  were  rapidly  advanced,  and 
a  lively  bushwhacking  followed  between  them  and  the 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  359 

Confederate  pickets,  each  side  taking  shelter,  as  opportunity 
offered,  behind  rock  and  tree.  Slowly  the  two  regiments  fol 
lowed,  and,  when  less  than  fifty  yards  had  been  gained,  re 
ceived  a  volley  from  the  hill-top.  It  now  fared  hard  with 
the  skirmishers.  Smith  ordered  his  men  to  lay  down,  and 
when  the  violence  of  the  fire  was  exhausted,  they  rose  again 
and  pushed  on  up  the  hill.  Thus  falling  when  the  fire  was 
hottest,  and  then  rising  again,  they  at  last  reached  the  top, 
and  Cruft  at  the  same  time  attacking  the  enemy  on  the  hill 
side,  the  ridge  was  cleared.  The  fight  and  pursuit  lasted  for 
two  hours,  and  by  five  o'clock  the  enemy  had  entirely  dis- 
appeard  from  the  field,  taking  refuge  in  his  intrenchments. 

Logan  had  all  this  time,  fully  six  hours,  been  constantly 
in  the  saddle,  which  he  was  enabled  to  do  only  by  the  exer 
cise  of  great  resolution  and  excitement.  The  pain  from  the 
wound,  though  intense,  he  could  endure,  but  loss  of  blood  in 
addition  to  the  pain  made  him  so  weak  and  sick  that  he  could 
no  longer  keep  the  saddle.  He  remained  on  the  field  until 
he  saw  that  the  surrender  of  the  fort  was  assured,  and  the 
reaction  upon  his  spirits  which  followed,  compelled  him  to 
receive  surgical  attention  at  the  hospital. 

The  severity  of  Colonel  Logan's  wound  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  he  was  confined  to  bed,  under  the  most  skilful 
surgeons,  for  five  weeks,  and  did  not  fully  recover  for  nearly 
one  year,  though  he  reported  for  duty  and  participated  in  the 
battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing  in  the  April  following. 


360  LIFE   AND   1'UiiUC   SERVICES   OF 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  intense  suffering  which  Logan  endured  as  he  lay  o 
his  bed  under  a  surgeon's  care,  did  not  diminish  the  anxiet 
he  hud  first  felt  at  his  country's  peril.  On  March  5th  h 
received  his  commission  as  Brigadier-General  of  volunteers 
as  a  reward  for  his  gallantry  at  Donaldson.  He  seized  an 
read  every  paper  that  could  be  obtained,  reporting  open 
tions  of  our  army  in  the  front,  and  these  and  his  new  con 
mission,  so  increased  his  restlessness;  that  he  could  nc 
restrain  the  ambition  which  continually  drew  him  toward 
the  camp;  therefore,  while  his  wound  was  still  unheale 
and  extremely  sore,  he  joined  his  command  in  time  to  pai 
ticipate  in  the  bloody  fight  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  April  6th 
There,  and  at  Shiloh,  he  again  led  what  remained  of  th 
Thirty-first,  and  carried  it  into  three  of  the  most  desperat 
charges  that  were  made  during  the  war;  their  tracks  wer 
gory  and  covered  with  dead  and  dying,  but  these  were  nc 
to  be  regarded  until  after  the  battle,  and  so  they  reaped  an 
winnowed  that  dreadful  red  field,  until  victory  was  torn  fror 
defeat.  Here  Logan  received  another  wound  in  the  arm 
but  to  him  it  was  only  a  trifle  while  the  smoke  of  battle  roll© 
up  responsive  to  echoing  thunder  that  flowed  fast  on  sheets  o 
flame  from  cannon  and  musketry.  This  wound  needed  onl 
a  bandage,  for  the  spirit  which  inspired  him  was  so  brtivi 
that  fighting  strength,  though  disadvantaged,  kept  him  ii 
the  fray. 

At  the  siege  of  Corinth,  which  soon  followed,  Logan  an< 
the  heroic  Thirty-first  added  new  lustre  to  the  already  bur 
nished  shields  they  wore.  The  highest  military  authority  a 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  361 

the  time,  Gen.  Sherman,  in  making  his  report  of  the  battle, 
paid  this  tribute  to  Col.  Logan's  bravery  and  military  skill: 

"I  feel  under  special  obligations  to  Col.  John  A.  Logan 
who,'  during  the  two  days  he  served  under  me  (at  Corinth), 
held  the  entire  ground  on  my  right  extending  down  to  the 
railroad.  All  the  time  he  had  in  his  front  a  large  force  of 
the  enemy,  but  so  dense  was  the  forest  he  could  not  reckon 
their  strength,  save  what  he  could  see  upon  the  railroad." 

Of  Logan's  gallant  conduct  at  Ft.  Donaldson,  Gen.  Mc- 
Clernand,  commanding  the  division,  in  his  report  wrote  the 
following:  "Schwartz's  battery  being  left  unsupported  by 
the  retirement  of  the  Twenty-ninth,  the  Thirty -first  boldly 
rushed  to  its  defense,  and  at  the  same  moment  received  the 
combined  attack  of  the  forces  on  the  right  and  of  others 
in  the  front,  supposed  to  have  been  led  by  Gen.  Buckner. 
The  danger  was  imminent,  and  called  for  a  change  of  dis 
position  adapted  to  meet  it,  which  Col.  Logan  made  by 
forming  the  right  wing  of  his  batallion  at  an  angle  with 
the  left.  In  this  order  he  supported  the  battery,  which  con 
tinued  to  play  upon  the  enemy  and  held  him  in  check  until 
bis  regiment's  supply  of  ammunition  was  entirely  ex 
hausted." 

To  this  report  Col.  Richard  J.  Oglesby,  commanding  the 
First  brigade,  added  the  following :  * '  Turning  to  the  Thirty- 
first,  which  yet  held  its  place  in  line,  I  ordered  Col.  Logan  to 
throw  back  his  right,  so  as  to  form  a  crochet  on  the  right  of 
the  Eleventh  Illionis.  In  this  way  Col.  Logan  held  in  check 
the  advancing  foe  for  some  time,  under  the  most  destructive 
fire,  whilst  I  endeavored  to  assist  Col.  Craft  with  his  brig 
ade  in  finding  a  position  on  the  right  of  the  Thirty-first.  It 
was  now  four  hours  since  figthing  began  in  the  morning.  The 
cartridge  boxes  of  the  Thirty-first  were  nearly  empty  ;  Col. 


302  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Logan  had  been  severely  wounded,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
John  H.  White,  with  thirty  others,  had  fallen  dead  on  the 
Held  and  a  large  number  wounded.  In  this  condition  Col. 
Logan  brought  off  the  remainder  of  his  regiment  in  good 
order." 

After  the  occupation  of  Corinth,  Gen.  Logan's  brigade 
guarded  the  rail  communications  between  that  point  and 
Jackson,  Tennessee,  so  that  for  a  season  they  enjoyed  a 
well  deserved  rest. 

During  the  summer,  Gen.  Logan  was  importuned  by  the 
poeple  of  his  old  district  to  accept  a  nomination  at  their 
hands  for  Congress,  but  declined,  and  upon  receiving  con 
tinued  petitions  replied  in  a  letter  to  the  Chairman  of  the 
Republican  Committee  of  the  district  as  follows: 

"  In  reply  I  would  most  respectfully  remind  you  that  a 
compliance  with  your  request  on  my  part  would  be  a  depar 
ture  from  the  settled  resolution  with  which  I  resumed  my 
sword  in  defense  and  for  the  perpetuity  of  a  government, 
the  like  and  blessings  of  which  no  other  nation  or  age  shall 
enjoy,  if  once  suffered  to  be  weakened  or  destroyed.  In 
making  this  reply,  I  feel  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge 
upon  what  were  or  are,  or  may  hereafter  be,  my  political 
views,  but  would  simply  state  that  politics  of  every  grade 
and  character  whatsoever,  are  now  ignored  by  me,  since  I 
am  convinced  that  the  constitution  and  life  of  the  Republic 
—which  I  shall  never  cease  to  adore — are  in  danger.  I  ex 
press  all  my  views  and  politics  when  I  assert  my  attachment 
to  the  Union .  I  have  no  other  politics  now,  and  consequently 
no  aspirations  for  civil  place  or  power.  Ambitious  men, 
who  have  not  a  true  love  for  their  country  at  heart,  may 
bring  forth  crude  and  bootless  questions  to  agitate  the  pulse 
of  our  troubled  country  and  thwart  the  preservation  of  this 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  363 

Union ;  but  for  none  of  such  am  I.  I  have  entered  the  field 
to  die,  if  need  be,  for  this  government,  and  never  expect  to 
return  to  peaceful  pursuits  until  the  object  of  this  war  for 
preservation  is  an  accomplished  fact." 

Nobler  sentiments  were  never  expressed ;  a  purer  devotion, 
more  unselfish  patriotism,  was  never  exhibited;  it  was  an 
exhibition  of  such  loyalty  as  only  the  purest  in  heart  can 
feel.  It  proved  that  Logan  was  a  patriot  above  everything 
else;  that  he  subordinated  friendship,  private  interests,  per 
sonal  aggrandizement,  and  every  ambition  for  exaltation  to 
the  one  supreme,  overruling  desire  for  a  re-establishment  of 
the  Union,  unsullied  and  undivided.  So  fond  an  attachment 
to  his  country  and  generous  appreciation  for  our  benign  in 
stitutions  of  pure  republicanism  made  even  the  political  ene 
mies  of  Logan  admire,  if  not  love  him.  That  letter,  so  full 
of  passionate  devotion,  added  much  to  his  already  great  repu 
tation  in  Southern  Illinois,  and  the  effects  which  it  produced 
have  not  yet  been  wasted  by  the  time  that  has  intervened. 


364  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  X. 

Gen.  Logan  displayed  such  skill  and  bravery  in  Grant's 
campaign  of  the  Northern  Mississippi,  in  1862  and  1863, 
that  he  was  made  a  Major-General,  the  commission  dating 
from  November  26,  1862.  As  the  commander  of  the  Third 
Division,  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  under  General  McPher- 
son,  he  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Port  Gibson,  fought  with 
distinguished  personal  bravery  at  the  battle  of  Raymond,  on 
the  12th  of  May,  helped  drive  the  rebels  out  of  Jackson 
two  days  later,  and  was  in  the  battle  of  Champion's  Hill 
May  16th. 

Champion  Hill,  or  Baker's  Creek,  was  on  the  line  of 
march  to  Vicksburg,  and  not  more  than  five  miles  from  that 
city.  Pemberton,  commanding  the  Confederate  forces  at 
Vicksburg,  had  reports  of  the  Federal  movements  in  force, 
and  marched  out  in  obedience  to  an  order  from  Gen.  John 
ston,  to  form  a  junction  of  the  two  commands.  Our  troops, 
however,  intercepted  the  two  Confederate  commands,  first 
skirmishing  with  Johnston.  Gen.  Pemberton,  hearing  the 
firing,  took  up  a  strong  position  along  a  ridge  of  hills,  oast 
of  Edward's  Station,  on  the  right  bank  of  Baker's  Creek, 
covering  his  front  with  cavalry  skirmishers  and  artillery. 
Gen  A.  J.  Smith  first  found  Pemberton,  and  a  lively  fight 
ensued  for  nearly  half  an  hour,  when  Smith  drew  off  to 
await  re-enforcements.  McPherson  engaged  Johnson  at 
about  the  same  time,  and  though  not  nearly  equal  to  the 
enemy  in  number,  he  fought  with  such  persistence  and  gen 
eralship  as  more  than  made  up  for  his  deficiency  in  men. 


JOHN'    A.    LOGAN.  3()5 

General  Logan,  being  second  in  command,  led  Stevenson's 
brigade,  in  his  division,  in  such  a  brilliant  charge  against 
the  enemy's  flank  that  he  drove  them  down  a  hill  in  utter 
rout,  capturing  seven  pieces  of  artillery,  five  hundred  prison 
ers,  and  cut  off  the  Confederate  General,  Loring,  who  was 
on  the  Vicksburg  road,  trying  to  reach  the  city.  This  grand 
and  auspicious  movement  on  the  part  of  Logan  not  only 
discomfited  the  enemy  but  gave  McClernand's  division  time 
to  come  up,  and  a  consolidation  was  then  effected  that 
speedily  drove  the  Confederates  pell  mell  into  Vicksburg, 
and  resulted  in  the  capture  of  a  large  amount  of  ammunition. 
In  Logan's  resistless  charge  General  Tilghman,  who  com 
manded  the  Confederate  garrison  at  Ft.  Henry,  was  killed, 
and  five  hundred  prisoners  taken.  The  wonderful  intre 
pidity  and  skilful  maneuvering  of  Gen.  Logan  was  so 
marked  that  he  rose  in  the  army  as  he  had  before  in  public 
position  proving,  in  both  official  and  military  life,  a  genius 
deserving  of  honor,  confidence,  and  love  from  every  patriot. 
He  is  the  only  soldier  in  all  history  that  ever  rose  from  pri 
vate  to  the  high  rank  of  Major-General,  and  yet  this  ad 
vancement  was  made  in  but  little  more  than  one  year. 

Though  his  promotion  in  November,  18(52,  was  to  the 
rank  of  Major-General,  it  was  not  until  after  the  battle  of 
Champion  Hills  that  he  was  confirmed  and  given  command 
of  the  Third  Division  of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps. 
This  action  was  at  a  most  opportune  time,  for  it  was  just 
before  beginning  a  siege  of  Vicksburg,  when  his  strength  as 
a  great  military  commander  could  be  put  to  the  test. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  Pemberton  marched  into  Vicksburg, 
followed  closely  by  our  pursuing  troops,  who  began  an  in 
vestiture  of  the  city  on  the  18th.  On  the  19th  the  left 
corps  of  the  besieging  army  advanced  to  within  two  miles 


3()«>  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SKIIVK'KS    OF 

of  Vickshurg,  drove  in  the  Confederate  pickets  and  at  2 
p.  M.  began  a  general  assault.  At  this  time  Gen.  Logan 
had  his  right  resting  on  the  Mississippi,  in  plain  view  of 
Porter's  tleet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo  and  at  Young's 
Point,  while  his  front,  in  sight  of  Vicksburg,  was  separated 
from  the  enemy  by  only  four  hundred  yards  of  very  difficult 
ground,  cut  up  by  almost  impracticable  ravines.  The 
Fourth  Iowa  Cavalry  had  taken  possession  of  Raines' 
Bluff,  and  communication  had  been  opened  with  Admiral 
Porter. 

Logan  alone  was  in  a  position  to  make  a  determined  at 
tack;  and  Grant,  counting  on  the  demoralization  of  the 
enemy,  hoped  by  a  vigorous  onset  against  the  Confederate 
left  to  win  an  immediate  victory.  At  the  hour  designated 
Blair's  division  moved  forward,  with  Ewing's  and  Giles 
Smith's  brigades  on  the  right  of  the  road,  and  T.  K.  Smith's 
on  the  left,  artillery  being  disposed  in  the  rear  to  cover  the 
point  where  the  road  entered  the  Confederate  intrench- 
ments.  Tuttle's  division  held  the  road,  Buckland's  brigade, 
however,  being  deployed  to  Blair's  rear.  The  assault  was 
not  successful,  though  it  was  a  most  gallant  affair.  Gen. 
Logan,  regardless  of  the  custom  which  usually  keeps  com 
manding  officers  in  the  rear,  rode  forward  with  flashing 
sword  and  gleaming  eyes,  shouting  brave  words  to  his  men 
and  stimulating  them  by  his  fearless  courage.  The  line  ad 
vanced  across  the  intervening  chasms,  filled  with  standing 
and  fallen  timber,  up  to  the  trenches,  and  the  Thirteenth 
Regulars  (Giles  Smith's  left)  reaching  the  works  first,  suc 
ceeded  in  planting  its  colors  upon  the  outer  slope;  but  this 
was  effected  at  a  cost  of  seventy-seven  out  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  the  commander  of  the  regiment,  Captain 
Washington,  being  mortally  wounded  and  five  other  officers 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  367 

more  or  less  severely.  Almost  simultaneously  two  other 
regiments  (the  Eighty-third  Indiana  and  the  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-seventh  Illinois)  reached  the  same  position, 
but,  though  able  to  hold  their  ground  by  making  it  fatally 
hazardous  for  any  head  to  appear  above  the  parapet,  they 
could  not  enter  the  works.  Other  regiments  on  either  side 
obtained  similar  positions,  but  night  came  on  finding  them 
still  outside  the  works,  which  they  could  only  threaten  but 
not  take,  and  when  darkness  came  on  Gen.  Logan  withdrew 
his  advanced  column  to  a  position  less  exposed. 

The  next  two  days  were  spent  collecting  supplies  and  pre 
paring  for  another  assault,  which  was  ordered  by  Grant  to 
take  place  at  10  o'clock  on  the  22d.  At  the  hour  ap 
pointed,  Gen.  Logan's  assailing  column,  consisting  of 
Blair's  division  (G.  A.  Smith's  and  T.  K.  Smith's  brig 
ades),  led  by  Hugh  Ewing's  brigade,  advanced  along  a  road 
selected  the  night  before.  This  road  followed  the  crown 
of  an  interior  ridge,  being  thus  partially  sheltered,  and 
finally  entered  the  parapet  of  the  enemy's  works  at 'a  shoul 
der  of  the  bastion.  Tuttle  supported  Blair,  and  Steele, 
from  his  position  half  a  mile  to  the  right,  attacked  simul 
taneously  the  enemy  in  his  front.  As  Blair  advanced,  not  a 
head  could  be  seen  above  the  enemy's  works,  except  now  and 
then  that  of  some  sharp-shooter,  who  quickly  discharged 
his  piece  and  then  disappeared.  To  keep  these  down, a  line 
of  picked  skirmishers  was  placed.  The  advancing  column 
was  led  by  a  volunteer  storming-party  of  150  men,  carry 
ing  boards  and  poles  to  bridge  the  ditch.  Meanwhile  five 
batteries  concentrated  their  fire  on  the  bastion  commanding 
the  approach  ;  but  no  enemy  appeared,  although  the  assail 
ing  column,  as  it  came  upon  the  crown  of  the  ridge,  was 
fully  exposed.  Unassailed  the  storming-party  had  reached 


3(>8  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OB" 

the  salient  of  the  bastion,  and  passed  toward  the  sally-port, 
followed  closely  by  Ewing's  brigade,  when  from  behind  the 
parapet  rose  the  enemy  in  double  rank,  and  poured  on  the* 
head  of  the  column  a  terrific  fire,  staggering  and  sweeping  it 
back  to  cover.  The  rear  pressed  on,  but  vainly  attempted 
to  brave  this  reserved  storm  of  bullets.  Still  undaunted, 
E wing's  advance  shifted  to  the  left,  crossed  the  ditch, 
climbed  up  the  outer  face  of  the  bastion,  and  planted  its 
colors  near  the  top,  burrowing  in  the  earth  from  the  fire 
upon  its  flank.  Giles  Smith's  brigade  meanwhile  formed 
line  in  a  ravine,  and  threatened  the  parapet  300  yards  to 
the  left  of  the  bastion,  while  Kilby  Smith,  from  the  slope 
of  a  spur,  assisted  by  Ewing's  brigade,  kept  up  a  constant 
fire  on  any  object  appearing  above  the  parapet.  Logan  was 
in  the  field  always  where  he  was  most  needed,  cheering  and 
leading  on  his  men,  and  with  heroic  endeavor  trying  to 
break  over  the  wall  of  deadly  flame  that  ran  along  the  as 
sailed  parapets,  charging  again  and  again,  but  each  tune 
hurled  back  by  a  withering  fire  that  nothing  living  could 
withstand  For  ten  long  hours  did  this  dreadful  fighting 
last,  and  until  more  than  three  thousand  brave  Union  boys 
lay  piled  in  ghastly  confusion  over  the  bloody  ground.  In 
the  afternoon,  at  4  o'clock,  Gen.  Logan  moved  his  men  up 
in  solid  phalanx,  until  he  held  the  side  of  the  parapet  oppo 
site  the  enemy,  so  close  that  the  glowering  eyes  of  opposing 
troops  could  be  seen  flashing  fire  and  hatred,  but  his  men 
melted  rapidly  away  under  a  flame  of  fire  that  compelled 
them  to  withdraw,  and  except  from  Porter's  fleet,  the 
firing  ceased  for  the  ntoht. 

cj  O 

The  siege  of  Vicksburg  followed  the  unsuccessful  assaults 
of  Iho  1'Jth  and  22d.  All  through  the  hotdays  of  May 
and  June  lay  the  Federal  forces,  digging  under  the  forti- 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  371 

fications;  pushing  closer  gradually  but  surely,  while  the 
mortar  and  gunboats  kept  up  a  continued  cannonading. 
The  Confederates  manifested  a  most  remarkable  heroism, 
keeping  a  bold  front  when  starvation  threatened  and  when 
there  was  not  a  place  in  the  entire  city  secure  from  the 
bursting  bombs  which  screamed  and  exploded  at  all  hours 
both  day  and  night. 

At  length,  by  continual  fighting,  the  Federals  surrounded 
the  city,  a  large  force  under  McPherson  having  taken  up  a 
position  on  the  south;  but  it  was  impossible  to  convey  sup 
plies  by  land  to  McPherson's  corps  on  account  of  the  Con 
federates  who  still  rendered  unsafe  the  only  road  by  which 
the  army  lying  on  the  south  of  the  city  could  be  reached. 
To  provide  relief,  Gen.  Logan  ordered  seven  steamers  and  the 
gunboat  Carondelet,  loaded  with  supplies,  and  manning  the 
former  with  his  own  men  he  ran  the  batteries  at  night.  Al 
though  detected  by  the  Confederates  and  tired  upon  by  more 
than  a  hundred  cannon,  the  steamers  passed  the  blockade 
safely  and  landed  their  supplies  in  good  condition. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  successful  breaking  of  the 
blockade  that  Gen.  Pemberton,  unable  to  continue  the  de 
fense  any  longer,  proposed  terms  for  capitulation.  Before 
meeting  Pemberton,  Grant  sent  for  Logan  and  held  a  lengthy 
conference  with  him  concerning  the  terms  upon  which  he 
should  treat  for  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg.  When  the 
surrender  was  completed,  on  July  4th,  Gen.  Logan's  corps 
was  given  the  special  honor  of  leading  the  march  into  the 
city,  as  a  recognition  of  the  great  gallantry  of  himself  and 
men.  As  a  further  mark  of  honor  Grant  made  him  Mili 
tary  Governor  of  Vicksburg,  and  at  the  same  time  the  Seven 
teenth  Army  Corps,  to  express  the  admiration  they  felt  for 
their  brave  commander,  presented  him  with  a  gold  medal  on 


372  LIFE  AND  rriiLic  SERVICES  OF 

which  was  inscribed  the  names  of  nine  battles  in  which  he 
had  distinguished  himself.  Such  a  record,  won  in  so  short 
a  time,  is  without  precedent,  if  we  may  except  that  alone  of 
Napoleon.  Logan  appeared  not  only  to  bear  a  charmed 
life,  but  was  moved  in  battle  almost  by  inspiration;  his 
every  act  seemed  particularly  opportune,  and  fortune  always 
stood  ready  to  take  his  hand  in  every  dire  extremity.  At 
Belmont  a  horse  was  shot  under  him  and  his  pistol  shattered ; 
at  Donelson  he  received  a  desperate  wound;  at  Corinth  he 
was  again  wounded;  and  yet  these  only  served  to  make  him 
more  determined,  seeming  to  assure  him  that  he  might  be 
shot,  but  never  killed;  and,  indeed,  the  chances  he  took  in 
battle  apparently  confirmed  this  opinion.  The  medal  re 
ceived  at  Vicksburg  was  a  most  appropriate  mark  of  the 
esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  the  boys  who  had  followed 
him  in  so  many  charges. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN. 


CHAPTER  XT. 

As  commander  of  the  post  atVicksburg,  Gen.  Logan  gave 
perfect  satisfaction,  regardful  for  the  personal  rights  of 
property  holders  of  the  city,  whether  they  were  Southern 
sympathizers  or  loyal  to  the  North;  like  all  brave  men,  he 
knew  how  to  be  generous  to  a  stricken  foe.  In  the  fall  he 
returned  to  Illinois  for  a  short  vacation,  but  did  not  spend  the 
time  resting,  for  he  saw  that  there  was  still  a  feeling  of  hatred 
among  the  people  of  Southern  Illinois,  who  masked  their  real 
sentiments  behind  declarations  that  the  war  was  a  failure  and 
ought  not  to  be  supported.  He  therefore  took  the  stump 
and  made  several  speeches,  especially  addressed  to  the  luke 
warm  adherents  of  the  Union,  and  in  burning  language 
condemned  every  man  who  was  unwilling  to  support  the 
war  which  had  for  its  object  the  guarantee  of  human  rights 
as  against  disunion  and  oppression.  His  speeches  fired 
the  people  of  Illinois  with  enthusiasm,  and  caused  the  enlist 
ment  of  several  new  regiments. 

Having  administered  the  duties  of  his  position  at  Vicks- 
burg  for  some  months,  Logan,  at  his  own  request  for  more 
active  duty,  was  once  more  placed  in  the  field.  On  the  27th 
of  October,  1863,  the  President  appointed  him  to  the  com 
mand  of  the  Fifteenth  Army  corps,  thereby  relieving  Major- 
General  Francis  P.  Blair,  who  was  soon  to  take  his  seat  in 
Congress  as  the  Representative  of  the  First  district  of  Illi 
nois.  He  succeeded  Sherman  at  the  head  of  the  Fif teeth 
Army  corps  in  November,  1863,  and  when  McPherson  lost 
his  life  on  the  22d  of  July,  Logan  succeeded  him  and  com- 


374  LIFE    AM)    PIHLIC    SERVICES    OF 

manded  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  with  the  same  ability 
and  success  which  had  characterized  his  command  of  smaller 
numbers. 

The  campaign  about  Atlanta  was  one  of  sharp  fighting, 
and  one  in  which  Gen.  Logan  won  fresh  laurels  to  add  to 
the  already  large  crown  he  wore. 

In  the  formation  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  for  opera 
tions  in  the  southeast,  Gen.  Logan  was  given  charge  of  the  Fif 
teenth,  and  portions  of  the  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  corps, 
the  whole  being  under  McPherson,  as  ranking  General.  To 
this  force  was  added  the  cavalry  in  the  Army  of  the  Ohio,  and 
also  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  With  this  consoli 
dated  army,  Sherman  prepared  for  his  march  to  the  sea. 

On  the  25th  of  March,  1864,  Sherman  set  out  on  a  gen 
eral  tour  of  inspection  through  his  department,  consulting 
with  McPherson,  Logan,  Thomas  and  Schofield.  The  value 
of  the  possession  of  Chattanooga  was  now  manifest.  This 
position  was  the  central  buttress  of  the  Federal  position. 
On  its  left,  East  Tennessee  was  firmly  grasped  by  Schofield' s 
army ;  on  its  right  the  Tennessee  River  was  guarded  by  a 
line  of  garrison,  which  permitted  the  access  northward  of 
cavalry  only.  In  the  rear  were  two  good  and  reliable  lines 
of  railway  communication  from  Nashville  to  Memphis. 
During  the  season  of  navigation  the  Tennessee  River  affords 

o  o 

a  third  line.  Having  arranged  with  his  subordinates  the 
disposition  of  their  several  armies — how  many  should  take 
the  field,  and  how  many  be  retained  for  garrison  duty- 
Sherman  returned  to  Nashville.  At  this  time  the  citizens  of 
Tennessee  in  his  rear  were  in  large  measure  sustained  by 
stores  which  they  shared  with  the  army.  Finding  that  this 
double  want  could  not  be  supplied  with  safely  to  the  army, 
he  issued  orders  cutting  off  the  supply  of  the  citizens,  and 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  375 

leaving  them  to  other  sources  of  relief.  The  first  of  May 
was  the  time  fixed  for  the  completion  of  preparations,  and 
by  that  time  the  store-houses  of  Chattanooga  contained  pro 
visions  for  thirty  days,  and  the  ammunition  trains  were  fully 
supplied.  The  veteran  regiments,  whose  time  had  expired, 
and  who  had  been  released  on  furlough,  now  returned  with 
their  ranks  filled  by  new  recruits. 

Sherman  had  intended  to  move  against  the  enemy  with 
100,000  men  of  all  arms,  and  250  guns.  His  actual  force 
on  the  1st  of  May  was  98,797  men  and  254  guns.  The 
Army  of  the  Cumberland,  numbering  60,773  men,  with  130 
guns,  constituted  three-fifths  of  his  entire  command.  The 
Army  of  the  Tennessee  numbered  24,465,  with  96  guns, 
and  that  of  the  Ohio  13,559,  with  28  guns.  Sherman's 
whole  force  was  distributed  as  follows  among  the  three  arms 
bf  the  service:  the  infantry  of  the  three  armies  numbered 
138,188  men;  the  artillery  4,450,  with  254  guns  ;  the  cavalry 
16,149. 

From  Ringold,  the  advanced  front  of  the  Federal  army, 

|;o  Atlanta,  was  nearly  one  hundred  miles  across  an  exceed- 

ngly  rough  country.     Atlanta  was  the  heart  not  only  of 

Sreorgia,  but  of  the  Confederacy  itself,  being  its  principal 

rranery  and  the  manufacturing  center  which  supplied  the 

Southern  armies  with   cannon,   ammunition,  clothing  and 

quipments  generally.     It  was  therefore  the  back-bone  and 

itals,  so  to  speak,  of  the  South  and,  therefore,  to  capture 

his  place  meant  a  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

Ringold  lies  amid  the  mountains  of  Taylor's  Ridge  on 
he  main  road  leading  from  Chattanooga  to  Dalton.  Ten 
niles  from  Ringold  is  Buzzard's  Roost  Pass,  a  wild  glen, 
Ireary  in  aspect  and  treacherous  in  surroundings,  affording 
xcellent  means  for  ambush,  which,  at  the  time  of  which  I 


376  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

am  writing,  was  seriously  to  be  apprehended.  Four  miles 
from  this  pass  lay  Dalton  which  was  occupied  by  25,000 
Confederates  under  Johnston,  while  other  Confederate  for 
ces  were  disposed  at  points  so  near  as  to  permit  of  a  quick 
consolidation. 

On  the  4th  of  May  the  army  of  the  Potomac  crossed  the 
Rapidan,  and  on  the  same  day  Grant  telegraphed  to  Sher 
man,  reminding  him  that  the  time  for  his  advance  against 
Johnston  had  come.  Sherman  neither  intended,  nor  did 
Johnston  expect,  an  assault  on  the  position  covering  Dalton 
— Buzzard's  Roost  Pass — which  was  obstructed  by  abatis, 
and  flooded  by  means  of  dams  across  Mill  Creek.  Prob 
ably  in  no  campaign  of  the  war  did  the  two  opposing  com 
manders  so  completely  fathom  each  other's  purpose,  or  so 
carefully  estimate  the  possibilities,  the  one  for  attack  and 
the  other  for  defense.  Sherman,  on  the  ()th  of  May,  with 
his  largest  army,  that  of  the  Cumberland,  menaced  Rocky 
Face  Ridge  with  such  vigor  that  it  would  seem  as  if  an  at 
tempt  like  that  made  five  months  before  against  Missionary 
Ridge  was  to  be  repeated  against  the  formidable  position 
held  by  Johnston  at  Buzzard's  Roost.  Schofield  threatened 
at  the  same  time  the  enemy's  right  flank.  McPherson's 
army,  from  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mill,  was  thrown  to  the  left 
and  rear,  moving  by  way  of  Ship's  Gap,  Villanow,  and 
Snake  Creek  Gap  to  Resaca,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Dal 
ton,  on  the  Atlanta  Railroad.  With  this  flanking  column 
McPherson  was  ordered  to  break  the  railroad  to  the  extent 
of  his  opportunity,  and  then  to  retire  to  Snake  Creek  Gap 
and  there  fortify  himself. 

Gen.  Logan  became  very  impatient  at  the  demonstra 
tions  made,  being  anxious  to  participate  an  onslaught 
Johnston  before  re-enforcements  for  the  enemy 


T.OGAN  LEADING  THE  CIIAKGE  AT  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  379 

ould  arrive,  but  his  superiors  were  deceived  by  Johnston's 
>old  front,  exaggerating  the  force  that  was  under  him. 

On  the  12th  of  May  Johnston  evacuated  Dalton,  and  re- 

reated  to  Resaca  where  he  fortified  himself,  and  here,  on 

lay  14th,  he  was  attacked.     Schofield  and  Thomas  struck 

be  enemy's  right  and  center  but  were  repulsed  with  con- 

derable  loss ;  the  attack  on  the   left,  led  by  Logan,  was 

uccessful,  however,   driving   the  Confederates  from  their 

osition  and  almost  completely  destroying  the  Confederate, 

ren.  Folk's,  division,  besides  capturing  many  prisoners  and 

uns.     This   victory  won   by  Logan   caused   Johnston   to 

vacuate    Resaca.      He  was    followed  persistently  by  Mc- 

'herson  and  every  step  was  fought  doggedly,  for  the  Con- 

sderates  bravely  contested  the  ground,  yielding  it  slowly, 

nd  giving  hot  battle  again   at  New  Hope  Church,  where 

jiogan  fought  with  his  corps  a  short  but  one  of  the  most 

readful  encounters  of  the  war,  in  which,  with  a  force  in- 

irior  in  point  of  number,  to  the  enemy,  drove  the  Con- 

ide rates  nearly  one  mile,  with  great  slaughter. 

Johnston  adapting  his  movements  to  those  of  Sherman, 

ansf  erred  his  whole  army  to  a  point  on  the  railroad  north  of 

arietta,  where  Kenesaw  on  his  right,  Pine  Mountain  in  the 

vanced  center,  and  Lost  Mountain  on  his  left,  interposed 

natural   barrier   to   a   direct  approach  from   the    north. 

hile  the  Confederate  army  was  intrenching  itself  in  this 

rmidable  position,  Sherman  repaired  the  railroad  in  his 

ar,  and  brought  forward  to  his  camp  an  abundant  supply 

provisions.     He  also  received  re-enforcement.     General 

air,  with  two  divisions  of  the  Seventeenth  Corps  (10,500 

en)  that  had  been  on  furlough,  and  Col.  Long's  brigade 

cavalry,  arrived  at  Ackworth  June  8th. 

On  the  9th  the  army  moved  to  Big  Shanty,  a  station  on 


380  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  railroad  midway  between  Ackworth  and  Kenesaw.  . 
triangular  mountain  fortress  of  Nature's  construction  hei 
confronted  Sherman.  For  the  next  twenty  days  the  enem 
held  their  position  by  lighting  continually,  and  on  the  23< 
as  Sherman  reported,  the  whole  country  was  one  vast  fo: 
with  Johnston  holding  fifty  miles  of  connected  trenche 
with  abatis  and  finished  batteries.  Atlanta  still  lay  just  1> 
yond  the  Chattahoochee,  not  five  miles  away,  inviting  bi 
inaccessible. 

Despite  the  rains  which  fell  almost  incessantly  for  thre 
weeks,  Sherman  pressed  on  across  the  roaring  ravines  unt 
he  reached  Kenesaw,  where  a  great  battle  had  to  be  fough 
the  Confederates  having  massed  there  to  oppose  the  furth< 
advance  of  the  Federals. 

Sherman  now  determined  to  assault  Kenesaw.  It  wj 
a  bold  and  Sherman-like  thing  to  do,  and  certainly  fai 
ure  could  not  have  been  reckoned  inevitable.  The  ord< 
was  given  on  the  24th,  and  executed  on  the  27th.  T^ 
points  were  selected  on  the  enemy's  left  centre — one  i 
Little  Kenesaw,  in  McPherson's  front,  the  other  a  mil 
farther  south,  in  front  of  Thomas.  On  the  appointed  daj 
after  a  vigorous  cannonade,  the  armies  of  the  Tennesse 
and  the  Cumberland  leaped  forward  to  their  terrible  worl 
their  assault  falling  mainly  on  Loring's  and  Hardee's  corpi 
With  a  loss  of  less  than  five  hundred  men  the  Confode.nil 
position  was  maintained,  and  McPherson  and  Thomas  uei 
completely  repulsed,  losing  altogether  three  thousand  moi 
including  General  Harker,  Colonel  Dan.  McCook,  Colon* 
Rice  and  other  valuable  officers.  Success  in  this  assau 
would  have  been  decisive  of  the  campaign  ;  it  would  hav 
cut  the  enemy  in  two,  prevented  his  retreat  and  expose 
him  to  defeat  in  detail.  But  the  question  was  whether ; 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  381 

were  wise  or  not  to  take  such  dreadful  risks,  which  could 
not,  even  if  successful,  but  prove  a  slaughter,  for  the  Con 
federates  were  intrenched  almost  as  solidly  as  though  they 
held  the  pass  of  Thermopylae.  Gen.  Logan,  with  Gen.  Mc- 
Pherson,  was  at  Gen.  Sherman's  headquarters  when  the 
assault  on  Kenesaw  was  decided  upon.  He  at  once  pro 
tested,  though  at  first  scarcely  believing  that  the  intention 
to  make  the  assault  was  earnest.  When  he  discovered  that 
it  was  really  contemplated,  he  emphasized  his  protest, 
coupling  it  with  the  opinion  that  to  send  the  troops  against 
that  mountain  would  only  result  in  useless  slaughter.  Find 
ing  his  opinion  likely  to  be  disregarded,  he  went  still  fur 
ther  and  declared  it  to  be  a  movement  which,  in  his  judg 
ment,  would  be  nothing  less  than  the  murder  of  brave  men. 
In  all  of  this  he  was  warmly  seconded  by  Gen.  McPherson. 
They  did  not  succeed  in  averting  the  slaughter.  But  after 
ward,  when  officers  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  heard 
that  Gen.  Thomas'  protest  in  regard  to  the  same  matter  had 
been  in  similar  terms  to  that  of  Logan,  a  stronger  liking 
than  ever  for  Logan  prevailed  among  those  officers  of  the 
Cumberland  Army  who  knew  the  facts.  Thus  he  ever 
sought  to  protect  his  men  whenever  he  saw  that  they  were 
likely  to  be  needlessly  exposed. 

But  Logan  was  never  a  man  to  disobey  orders,  and  when 
directed  to  make  the  attack  he  rode  into  the  jaws  of  death, 
like  the  gallant  six  hundred  at  Balaklava,  rode  too  at  the 
head  of  his  corps,  regarding  not  his  own  danger,  but  suffer 
ing  at  the  sight  of  his  brave  men  falling  like  leaves  in  an 
autumnal  gust,  in  their  desperate  effort  to  perform  a  hope 
less  task. 

After  the  defeat  at  Kenesaw,  Sherman  changed  his  tac 
tics,  and  by  skilful  maneuvering  crossed  the  Chattahoochee 


382  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

with  a  large  force  and  advanced  to  meet  Johnston,  who  had 
re-formed  on  Peach-tree  creek.  Here  the  Confederate 
General,  Cheatham,  attacked  Newton's  division,  late  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  19th,  but  were  hurled  back  onto  Hooker 
and  Johnton,  who,  after  three  hours'  hard  fighting,  drove 
the  Confederates  back  to  their  fortifications.  Gen.  John 
ston  was  relieved  of  his  command  at  this  point  of  the  strug 
gle  for  the  defense  of  Atlanta,  and  was  superceded  by  Gen. 
Hood,  an  officer  much  inferior  in  skill  to  Johnston.  The 
battle  of  July  22d  at  once  followed.  McPherson  had  the 
night  before  crossed  the  Augusta  railroad  two  miles  west 
of  Decatur,  after  severe  skirmishing,  and  Blair,  on  the  left 
of  the  road,  had  pushed  forward  and  seized  a  commanding 
eminence  not  two  miles  distant  from  Atlanta.  The  general 
advance  of  Sherman's  line  on  the  morning  of  the  22d  had 
been  contracted  and  strengthened.  Dodge's  (Sixteenth) 
corps,  on  Logan's  right,  had  been  in  this  way  displaced, 
and  was  sent  around  to  Blair's  left,  to  strengthen  the  com 
manding  position  which  had  been  gained  the  previous  night. 
Sherman  in  the  morning  had  supposed  that  Atlanta  was 
abandoned ;  but  before  noon  Thomas  and  Schofield  found 
the  enemy  well  intrenched  in  their  front,  covering  the  city, 
and  away  to  the  left  about  eleven  o'clock  was  heard  the  fire 
of  musketry  and  artillery.  In  a  moment  Hood's  design 
was  fathomed  ;  but  it  was  already  too  late  to  completely 
avert  the  danger  which  threatened  McPherson. 

Sherman  was  at  the  Howard  House  at  this  time,  on 
Thomas'  left.  Here  McPherson  met  him  and  Schofield  and 
described  the  condition  of  affairs  on  his  flank.  Sherman 
had  proposed  to  extend  to  the  right,  and  was,  therefore,  not 
desirous  to  gain  on  the  left.  But  the  nature  of  the  position 
gained  by  Blair  led  him  to  send  Dodge  to  strengthen  that 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  383 

point.  This  point  having  been  settled,  McPherson  started 
from  the  Howard  House  to  return  to  his  ariny,  reports 
having  already  reached  him  of  an  attempt  on  his  left.  The 
sound  of  musketry,  increasing  in  volume  and  accompanied 
by  artillery,  led  Sherman  to  order  an  advance  from  the 
right  and  centre,  and  to  hold  as  large  a  portion  of  Schofield's 
corps  as  possible  in  reserve  to  await  developments.  About 
half  an  hour  after  McPherson' s  departure,  his  adjutant-gen 
eral,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Clark,  rode  up  with  the  sad  and 
startling  intelligence  that  his  commander  was  either  dead  or 
a  prisoner;  that,  riding  from  Sherman's  headquarters  to 
Dodge's  column,  and  having  dismissed  his  orderlies  and 
staff  officers  on  various  errands,  he  had  passed  into  a  narrow 
path  leading  off  from  the  extreme  left  of  his  line,  and  a  few 
minutes  later  a  sharp  volley  was  heard  in  that  direction,  and 
McPherson 's  horse  had  come  out  riderless,  with  two  wounds. 
44  The  suddenness  of  this  calamity,"  says  Gen.  Sherman, 
"would  have  overwhelmed  me  with  grief,  but  the  living 
demanded  my  whole  thought."  Gen.  Logan,  commanding 
the  Fifteenth  Corps,  was  ordered  to  take  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee.  Sherman  instructed  Logan  ttnit 
he  did  not  wish  to  gain  ground  on  the  left,  but  that  the 
Augusta  railroad  must  be  held  at  all  hazards.  At  a  mo 
ment's  notice  Logan  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility 
which  McPherson  had  before  borne,  and  not  only  defended 
the  road  against  nearly  the  whole  of  Hood's  army  in  six 
desperate  assaults,  but  captured  several  pieces  of  artillery, 
comprising  two  full  batteries,  one  of  which  was  twenty- 
pounder  Parrott  guns. 

Gen.  Sherman  in  his  report  to  Halleck,  August  16th, 
wrote  as  follows: 

"It  occurs  to  me  that,  preliminary  to  a  future  report  of 


384  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

• 

the  history  of  this  campaign,  I  should  record  certain  factJ 
of  great  personal  interest  to  officers  of  this  command. 

"General  McPherson  was  killed  by  the  musketry  fire  al 
the  beginning  of  the  battle  of  July,  22.  He  had  in  pcrsoi 
selected  the  ground  for  his  troops,  constituting  the  left  wine 
of  the  army,  I  being  in  person  with  the  centre,  Genera 
Schofield.  The  moment  the  information  reached  me,  I  senl 
one  of  my  staff  to  announce  the  fact  to  General  John  A 
Logan,  the  senior  officer  present  with  the  Army  of  th< 
Tennessee,  with  general  instructions  to  maintain  the  grounc 
chosen  by  General  McPherson  if  possible,  but,  if  pressec 
too  hard,  to  refuse  his  left  flank  but,  at  all  events,  to  hole 
the  railroad  and  main  Decatur  road;  that  I  did  not  propose 
to  move  or  gain  ground  by  that  flank,  but  rather  by  th< 
right,  and  that  I  wanted  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  to  fighi 
it  out  unaided.  General  Logan  admirably  conceived  nij 
orders  and  executed  them ;  and,  if  he  gave  ground  on  th< 
left  of  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  it  was  properly  done  by  ni} 
orders;  but  he  held  a  certain  hill  by  the  right  division  oi 
the  Seventeenth  Corps,  the  only  ground  on  that  line  tin 
possession  of  which  by  an  enemy  would  have  damaged  us  b) 
giving  a  reverse  fire  on  the  remainder  of  the  troops.  Gen 
eral  Logan  fought  that  battle  out  as  required,  unaided  save 
by  a  small  brigade  sent  by  my  orders  from  General  Scho 
fifcld  to  the  Decatur  road,  well  to  the  rear,  where  it  was  re 
ported  the  enemy's  cavalry  had  got  into  the  town  of  Deca 
tur,  and  was  operating  directly  on  the  rear  of  Logan ;  bul 
that  brigade  was  not  disturbed,  and  was  replaced  that  nighl 
by  a  part  of  the  Fifteenth  Corps  next  to  General  Schofield, 
and  General  Schofield 's  brigade  brought  back  so  as  to  b< 
kept  together  on  its  own  line. 

4 'General  Logan  managed  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee 
well  during  his  command,  and  it  may  be  that  an  unfair  in 
ference  might  be  drawn  to  his  prejudice  because  he  did  nol 
succeed  to  the  permanent  command.  I  am  forced  to  choose 
a  commander,  not  only  for  the  army  in  the  field,  but  of  the 
Department  of  the  Tennessee,  covering  a  vast  extent  oi 
country,  with  troops  much  dispersed.  It  was  a  delicate  anc 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  387 

difficult  task,  and  I  gave  preference  to  Major  General  O.  O. 
Howard,  then  in  command  of  the  Fourth  Army  Corps  in  the 
Department  of  the  Cumberland.  Instead  of  giving  my  rea 
sons  I  prefer  that  the  wisdom  of  the  choice  be  left  to  the 
test  of  time.  The  President  kindly  ratified  my  choi  o,  and 
lam  willing  to  assume  the  responsibility.  I  meant  no  dis 
respect  to  any  officer;  and  hereby  declare  that  General 
Logan  submitted  with  the  grace  and  dignity  of  a  soldier, 
gentleman,  and  patriot,  resumed  the  command  of  his  corps 
proper  (Fifteenth),  and  enjoys  the  love  and  respect  of  his 
army  and  of  his  commanders.  It  so  happened  that  on  the 
28th  of  July  I  had  again  thrown  the  same  army  to  the  ex 
treme  right,  the  exposed  flank,  where  the  enemy  repeated 
the  same  manoeuvre,  striking  in  mass;  the  extreme  corps 
deployed  in  line,  and  refused  as  a  flank  the  Fifteenth,  Ma 
jor  General  Logan,  and  he  commanded  in  person,  General 
Howard  and  myself  being  near;  and  that  corps,  as  hereto 
fore  reported,  repulsed  the  rebel  army  completely,  and 
next  day  advanced  and  occupied  the  ground  fought  over  and 
the  road  the  enemy  sought  to  cover.  General  Howard,  who 
had  that  very  day  assumed  his  new  command,  unequivocally 
gave  General  Logan  all  the  credit  possible  ;  and  I  also  beg 
to  add  my  unqualified  admiration  of  the  bravery  and  skill, 
and,  more  yet,  good  sense  that  influenced  him  to  bear  a 
natural  disappointment,  and  do  his  whole  duty  like  a  man. 
If  I  could  bestow  upon  him  substantial  reward,  it  would 
afford  me  unalloyed  satisfaction;  but  I  do  believe,  in  the 
consciousness  of  acts  done  from  noble  impulses,  and  grace 
fully  admitted  by  his  superiors  in  authority,  he  will  be  con 
tented.  He  already  holds  the  highest  commission  known  in 
the  army,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  how  we  can  better  manifest 
our  applause." 

One  of  Logans  "boys"  then  carrying  a  musket,  said  to 
the  writer:  "Never  shall  I  forget — never  will  one  of  us  who 
survived  that  desperate  fight  forget,  to  our  dying  day — the 
grand  spectacle  presented  by  Logan  as  he  rode  up  and  down 
in  front  of  the  line,  his  black  eyes  flashing  fire,  his  long 


388  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

black  hair  streaming  in  the  wind,  bareheaded  and  his  ser 
vice-worn  slouch  hat  swinging  in  his  bridle  hand  and  his  sword 
flashing  in  the  other,  crying  out  in  stentorian  tones,  "Boys! 
McPherson  and  revenge!"  "Why,"  said  he,  "It  made  my 
blood  run  both  hot  and  cold  and  moved  every  man  of  us  to 
follow  to  the  death  the  brave  and  magnificent  hero-ideal  of 
a  soldier  who  made  this  resistless  appeal  to  all  that  is  brave 
and  gallant  in  a  soldier's  heart ;  and  this,  too,  when  the  very 
air  was  alive  with  whistling  bullets  and  howling  shell  !  And 
if  he  could  only  have  been  painted  as  he  swept  up  and 
(Imvn  the  line  on  a  steed  as  full  of  fire  as  his  glorious  rider, 
it  would  to-day  be  one  of  the  finest  battle  pictures  of  the 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  389 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  brilliant  success  of  Gen.  Logan  cliscomfitted  the  Con- 
?ederates  and  retrieved  somewhat  the  reverse  at  Kenesaw, 
jut  Atlanta  was  still  beyond  long  lines  of  fortification,  be- 
lind  which  lay  intrenched  more  than  35,000  of  Hood's  men. 
After  the  battle  of  the  22d,  and  the  promotion  of  Gen. 
Howard  to  the  command  of  the  army  of  the  Tennessee,  and 
jren.  Logan  to  commanding  the  Fifteenth  Army  corps,  a  rest 

three  days  was  taken  as  the  troops  were  nearly  exhausted 
from  constant  fighting  and  exposure  to  wet  and  malarious 
nfluences.  On  the  27th,  however,  hostilities  were  resumed. 
Gen.  Dodge,  with  the  Sixteenth  Corps,  took  position  just 
west  of  Proctor's  creek,  and  on  the  next  morning  (28th) 
Gen.  Blair,  with  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  extended  the  line 
south  and  west  to  Ezra  church,  on  the  Bell's  Ferry  or  Lick- 
skillet  road;  and  Logan  came  in  on  Bfair's  right,  his  own 
right  being  refused  along  a  well -wooded  ridge  south  of  the 
road.  By  10  A.  M.  on  the  28th,  Howard's  army  was  in  posi 
tion,  and  was  rapidly  fortifying  itself  with  breastworks  of 
rails  and  logs.  From  that  time  until  noon  there  was  heavy 
artillery  firing  from  the  Confederate  position.  Evidently 
Hood  was  about  to  repeat  the  tactics  of  the  22d.  Lieutenant 
General  S.  D.  Lee,  who  on  the  25th  had  relieved  General 
Cheatham  of  the  command  of  Hood's  former  corps,  was 
ordered  to  advance  and  attack  Howard's  right,  and  cover  the 
Lickskillet  road.  The  attack  about  noon  fell  upon  the 
corps  of  General  Logan,  who  fought  alone  the  battle  which 
ensued.  Several  assaults  were  made  by  Cheatham  until  4 
p.  M.,  but  were  each  repulsed  with  great  loss  to  the  enemy. 


390  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Logan's  loss  was  less  than  700.  But  when  Cheatham  aband 
oned  the  field  he  left  ()42  killed,  which  were  counted  and 
buried,  besides  many  others  buried  but  not  counted.  Sher 
man  estimates  the  Confederate  loss  in  this  battle  of  the  28th 
as  "not  less  than  5,000." 

This  battle,  though  fiercely  fought  according  to  Logan's 
custom  and  with  his  invariable  success,  did  not  open  the  way 
into  Atlanta.  Hood  continued  to  receive  re-enforcements 
until  his  lines  reached  from  Decatur  to  East  Point,  a  dis 
tance  of  fifteen  miles,  and  were  protected  by  both  natural 
and  artificial  fortifications  presenting  an  almost  impregnable 
front. 

Not  satisfied  with  what  had  been  accomplished  in  this  raid, 
Sherman,  on  the  night  of  August  25th,  raised  the  seige  of 
Atlanta.  General  A.  S.  Williams,  with  the  Twentieth  Corps, 
was  ordered  back  to  hold  the  intrenched  position  at  the 
Chattahoochee  bridge,  and  the  remainder  of  the  army,  with 
15  days'  rations,  was  set  in  motion  toward  a  position  on  the 
Macon  road,  at  or  near  Jonesbo rough.  On  the  first  night 
of  the  movement,  Stanley,  with  the  Fourth  Corps,  drew  out 
from  the  extreme  left  to  a  position  west  of  Proctor's  creek, 
and  Williams  moved  back,  as  ordered,  to  the  Chattahoochee, 
both  movements  being  effected  without  loss.  The  next  night 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  moved  south,  well  toward  Sand- 
town,  and  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  to  a  position  ^outli 
of  Etowa  creek,  Schofield  remaining  in  position.  Only  one 
casualty  occurred  in  this  second  stage  of  the  army's  prop; re ^ . 
A  third  movement,  on  the  27th,  brought  Howard's  command 
to  the  West  Point  road,  above  Fail-burn,  Thomas'  army  to 
Red  Oak,  Schofield  at  the  same  time  closing  in  on  the  l»>f't. 
The  28th  was  spent  in  the  destruction  of  the  West  Point 
road,  a  break  being  made  of  over  12  miles. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  391 

The  railroad  from  Atlanta  to  Macon  follows  the  ridge 
dividing  the  Flint  from  the  Ocmulgee  river,  and  between 
East  Point  and  Jonesborough  makes  a  wide  bend  to  the  east. 
It  was  against  this  ridge  that  the  Federal  army  moved  on 
the  29th — Logan  toward  Jonesborough  on  the  right ;  Thomas, 
in  the  center,  toward  Couch's,  on  the  Fayetteville  road, 
and  Schofield  on  the  left.  As  soon  as  Hood  learned  of  this 
movement  of  Sherman,  which,  if  successful,  would  compel 
the  evacuation  of  Atlanta,  he  sent  (on  the  30th)  Lee's  and 
Hardee's  corps  to  Jonesborough.  To  Hard ee  was  given  the 
command,  Hood  remaining  with  Stewart's  corps  in  Atlanta, 
intending,  in  case  of  Hardee's  success,  to  attack  in  flank. 
Hood  does  not  seem  to  have  been  aware  of  the  extent  of 
the  operation  which  Sherman  was  conducting,  and  supposed 
that  Hardee,  at  Jonesborough,  would  encounter  a  force 
inferior  to  his  own. 

The  battle  of  Jonesborough  was  fought  on  the  31st  of 

August.      Sherman  was   making   dispositions  to    advance 

Schofield' s  and  Davis*  corps  to  Rough  and  Ready,  between 

| Atlanta  and  Jonesborough,  when  Hardee,  coming  out  of  the 

atter  place,  attacked   Logan  in    his   intrenched  position. 

lardee  was  well  aware  of  the  importance  of  this  battle, 

nd  fought  his  troops  with  desperate  obstinacy  for  two  hours, 

when  he  withdrew  from  the  field  thoroughly  beaten,  having 

ost  1,400  killed  and  wounded. 

While  the  battle  had  been  in  progress,  Stanley's  and 
Schofield' s,  and  a  portion  of  Davis'  corps,  had  struck  the 
ailroad  at  several  points,  and  were  engaged  in  its  destruc- 
ion.  A  splendid  opportunity  was  now  offered  for  the 
iestruction  of  Hardee's  command.  Sherman  saw  this,  and 
rdered  his  three  corps  to  turn  against  Jonesborough. 
jogan  was  to  engage  Hardee  while  Thomas  and  Schofield 


«392  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

moved  down  upon  him  from  the  north,  destroying  the  rail 
road  on  their  march.  The  arrangements  for  a  final  blow 
were  now  made,  and  September  1st  was  chosen  as  the  time 
when  it  should  be  given.  By  noon  of  that  day  Davis' 
corps  reached  Howard's  left  and  faced  southward  across 
the  railroad.  Blair  was  then  with  the  Seventeenth  corps, 
and  Kilpatrick'  s  cavalry  thrown  across  the  road  south  of 
Jonesbo rough.  About  4  p.  M.  Logan  assaulted  the  enemy's 
lines  across  the  open,  sweeping  all  before  him,  and  captur 
ing  the  greater  part  of  Govan's  brigade,  including  its  com 
mander.  Repeated  orders  were  sent  hurrying  up  Schotield 
and  Stanley,  but,  owing  to  the  difficult  nature  of  the  coun 
try,  these  two  corps  did  not  arrive  until  night  rendered  fur 
ther  operations  impossible  and  during  the  night  the  enemy 
retreated  southward. 

During  the  same  night,  at  2  A.  M,  on  the  morning  of  Sep 
tember  2,  the  sound  of  heavy  explosions  was  heard  from 
the  direction  of  Atlanta,  20  miles  distant,  indicating  the 
evacuation  of  that  place  by  General  Hood.  Without  re 
garding  these  tokens,  Sherman  pressed  on  the  next  morning 
in  pursuit  of  Hardee,  but  found  it  impossible  to  intercept 
his  retreat.  On  the  2d,  Slocum  entered  Atlanta,  followed 
by  the  whole  army  on  the  7th.  In  this  last  movement  of 
his  army  Gen.  Sherman  had  captured  3,000  prisoners  and 
16  guns.  His  loss  had  been  1,500  men. 

In  the  meantime  Wheeler's  raid  on  Sherman's  communi 
cations  had  been  productive  of  little  damage.  He  had  broken 
the  railroad  near  Calhoun,  but  had  been  checked  by  Colonel 
Laibold  at  Dalton,  until  Steedman  could  arrive  from  Chatta 
nooga,  when  he  was  headed  off  into  East  Tennessee.  Fi 
nally,  Rousseau,  Steedman,  and  R.  S.  Granger,  with  their 
combined  forces,  drove  him  out  of  Tennessee. 


LOGAN'S  ARMY  ENTERING  ATLANTA. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  395 

"  Atlanta  is  ours,"  telegraphed  Sherman  to  Washington 
on  the  3d  of  September,  "and  fairly  won."  The  loss  of 
this  position  by  the  Confederates  was  an  irreparable  misfor 
tune.  The  wall  which  had  hitherto  protected  the  cotton 
States  was  now  obliterated.  The  victory  electrified  the  na 
tion  ;  it  was  felt  to  be  the  consummation  of  the  triumphs 
won  at  Vicksburg  and  Chattanooga,  and  its  political  effect 
in  the  loyal  States  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated.  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  wrote  a  letter  of  thanks  to  Sherman  and  his 
army:  "  The  marches,  battles,  sieges,  and  other  military 
operations  that  have  signalized  the  campaign  must  render  it 
famous  in  the  annals  of  war,  and  have  entitled  those  who 
have  participated  therein  to  the  applause  and  thanks  of  the 
nation."  Lieutenant  General  Grant,  before  Petersburg,  on 
the  4th,  ordered  a  salute  to  be  fired  in  honor  of  the  victory 
"  with  shotted  guns  from  every  battery  bearing  upon  the 
enemy."  On  the  12th,  General  Sherman  received  from  the 
President  a  commission  making  him  a  Major-General  in  the 
regular  army. 

I  have  given  a  somewhat  lengthy  description  of  the  move 
ments  and  battles  in  the  Atlanta  campaign,  because  they 
show  Gen.  Logan  as  a  great  central  figure,  upon  whom  de 
volved  the  hardest  fighting  and  the  gravest  responsibility. 
Whenever  Gen.  Sherman  desired  any  specially  serious  work 
done,  charging  a  murderous  battery,  driving  an  harassing 
enemy  from  some  stronghold,  cutting  through  solid  lines,  or 
leading  an  onslaught,  he  always  relied  upon  Logan  to  execute 
it,  because  he  knew  that  there  would  be  no  shrinking,  no 
hesitancy,  but  like  a  withering  blast  he  would  wheel  and  dash 
with  destructive  force  upon  the  enemy  in  the  full  spirit  of 
his  orders.  With  all  his  fighting,  for  nearly  two  months  in 
mountain  fastnesses,  narrow  defiles,  in  front  of  batteries 


396  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

and  forts,  over  bridges,  opposed  many  times  to  superior 
forces,  yet  Logan  never  lost  a  battle;  he  plucked  victory 
out  of  the  very  cannons'  mouths,  and  triumphed  on  blazing 
parapets  where  steel  and  fire  forged  thunderbolts  of  death. 
Logan's  charge  was  with  the  impetuosity  of  an  Arnold, 
Wayne,  or  Marion,  and  yet  his  daring  dashes  were  planned 
with  the  deliberation  of  a  Blucher.  He  rushed  into  pha 
lanxes  of  mighty  opposing  armies  but  not  without  first  cal 
culating — almost  by  intuition — the  results  of  his  attacks. 
Never  once  was  he  caught  in  a  cul  de  sac,  or  cut  off  from 
the  main  body  with  which  he  was  co-operating;  never  did 
he  needlessly  expose  his  brave  men,  though  they  would 
cheerfully  have  followed  him  into  any  direful  situation, 
through  flame  and  leaden  storm,  so  fond  was  their  attach 
ment,  so  perfect  their  confidence  in  his  masterly  general 
ship.  How  much  praise,  therefore,  shall  the  nation  award 
him  ?  How  enduring  shall  be  the  fame  and  glory  which  he 
won? 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  397 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

After  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  and  Sherman  had  laid  an  open 
route  to  Charleston  and  the  sea,  Gen.  Logan  came  North 
to  engage  in  the  Presidential  campaign  between  Lincoln  and 
McClellan.  It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  say  which  side  he 
espoused,  for,  though  originally  a  Democrat  when  the  war 
broke  out,  Gen.  Logan  regarded  Democracy,  as  it  then 
existed,  only  a  term  of  reproach,  the  desecration  of  sacred 
principles ;  in  fact  the  principles  of  his  old  political  faith 
still  lived,  rehabilitated  in  the  name  of  Republicanism. 

In  the  Presidential  contest  of  1864  there  was  intense  bit 
terness,  and  not  a  few  fears  on  the  part  of  Unionists  lest  the 
home  influence,  which  continually  declared  the  war  a  failure, 
should  prevail,  nor  was  this  solicitude  unnatural,  for  South 
ern  sympathizers  were  in  considerable  numbers  all  over  the 
North,  and  having  remained  at  home,  could  make  their  influ 
ence  felt  at  the  polls.  It  was  true  that  a  great  many  sol 
diers  were  given  furloughs  that  they  might  return  home  and 
vote  at  the  November  election,  yet  large  armies  of  Union  sol 
diers  had  to  remain  at  their  post  of  duty,  which  very  greatly 
diminished  the  Republican  vote.  For  this  reason  Gen.  Logan 
was  needed  on  the  stump,  his  wonderful  power  as  an  orator 
and  leader  of  public  sentiment  being  thoroughly  appreciated 
by  President  Lincoln  and  the  loyal  masses,  and  it  was  felt 
that  no  one  could  contribute  more  to  the  success  of  the  party 
than  he. 

During  Logan's  campaign  he  made  a  speech  in, my  town, 
Golconda,  the  effect  of  which  I  can  never  forget.  He  was 


398  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

welcomed  by  a  grand  barbecue,  as  well  as  booming  cannon, 
firing  of  pistols  and  waving  of  bunting.  The  magnetic 
name  of  Logan,  however,  aside  from  the  barbecue,  was 
enough  to  crowd  the  Creek  Bottom,  where  the  speaker's 
stand  was  erected,  with  such  an  immense  concourse  of  peo 
ple  that  it  looked  like  a  vast  army  of  almost  incalculable 
numbers.  People  came  to  town  by  team  for  more  than  a 
hundred  miles,  while  the  local  packets,  arriving  from  up 
and  down  the  river,  brought  all  the  people  they  could  carry. 
It  was  by  far  the  greatest  event  that  Golconda  ever  knew, 
either  before  or  since.  I,  with  thousands  of  others,  was  a 
rapt  listener  to  Logan's  speech  on  this  occasion  and,  though 
my  age  at  the  time  was  less  than  fifteen  years,  the  effect  of 
his  eloquent  words  stirred  me  as  I  have  never  been  since, 
though  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  hear  the  greatest  orators 
of  the  age.  Nor  was  the  result  more  pronounced  upon 
myself  than  it  was  upon  others,  for  men,  women  and  chil 
dren  seemed  to  be  electrified,  until  they  laughed  at  his  sal 
lies  of  wit,  hurrahed  with  zest  at  his  patriotic  appeals  and 
cried  over  the  passionate  pictures  which  he  drew  of  the 
camp,  field,  battle  and  hospital.  So  intensely  did  his 
speech  work  upon  the  feelings  of  his  audience  that  on  the 
following  day  enlistment  was  renewed  and  another  regi 
ment  of  men  was  organized  in  Golconda,  the  recruits  having 
been  made  chiefly  from  Pope  county.  Young  as  I  was  I 
now  determined,  too,  to  join  the  army,  and  being  refused 
permission  from  my  father,  in  company  with  other  boys, 
enthused  like  myself,  I  ran  off  to  Cairo,  only  to  spend 
several  days  in  a  vain  effort  to  become  a  soldier.  This  in 
cident  I  give,  not  with  a  view  of  intruding  my  own  experi 
ence  upon  the  reader,  but  as  an  illustration  of  the  inexpress 
ible  power  which  Gen.  Logan  possesses  as  a  public  speaker. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  399 

Success  like  that  which  attended  Logan  at  Golconda  fol 
lowed  him  wherever  he  spoke,  from  Illinois  to  Cooper 
Institute,  New  York,  and  there  is  no  doubting  the  assertion, 
which  has  been  frequently  made,  that  he  influenced  many 
thousands  of  Democrats  to  renounce  their  Southern  sympa 
thies  and  vote  the  Republican  ticket. 

As  soon  as  the  election  was  over,  Gen.  Logan  returned  to 
the  field  for  active  duty,  joining  Sherman  at  Savannah 
and  participating  in  the  campaign  of  the  Carolinas,  which 
was  begun  January  20,  1865  for  the  purpose  of  encounter 
ing  Johnston's  army  on  the  Potomac.  This  march  was  full 
of  peril  and  privations,  in  all  of  which  Gen.  Logan  was  with 
his  men  day  and  night,  wading  swamps  and  streams,  and 
doing  all  that  the  men  of  his  corps  were  called  on  to  suffer. 
The  command  moved  on,  driving  the  enemy  at  every  point, 
passing  through  Columbia,  Goldsborough,  and  Fayetteville, 
until  it  reached  Raleigh,  near  which  the  surrender  of  Johnston 
took  place,  and  the  campaign  was  closed. 

After  Johnston's  surrender  Logan  inarched  with  his  vete 
rans  to  Washington  City  and  took  part  in  the  grand  review  of 
the  victorious  Union  Armies,  May  23,  1865.  Washington 
rang  with  joyous  welcome  when  the  war-worn  veterans,  the 
heroes  of  a  hundred  battles,  passed  through  its  streets  as 
they  were  returning  to  peaceful  homes  and  loving  wives  and 
children.  That  city  had  felt  the  threatening  of  the  iron 
gauntlet  and  had  trembled  at  the  doom  of  a  fiery  desola 
tion.  It  was  consequently  in  a  fitting  position  to  realize 
and  applaud  the  daring  deeds- these  men  had  done;  what 
they  had  given  for  liberty  and  mankind.  True,  it  wept 
with  the  nation,  over  the  fearful  winnowing  of  shot  and 
shell,  of  bayonet  and  saber,  but  all  the  more  loudly  its 
cheers  rang  jubilantly  out  for  those  who  remained,  and  the 


400  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"God  bless  you,  dear  boys,"  fell  not  from  ungratefu 
tongues  or  were  prompted  by  unappreciated  hearts. 

The  memorable  grand  review  at  Washington  !  Ah,  who  shal 
forget  the  glory  of  that  great  day.  It  was  a  practical  proc 
lamation,  announcing  by  fife,  drum,  bands,  streaming  ban 
ners,  and  the  glad  steps  of  a  returning,  conquering  legion^ 
that  all  the  battles  had  been  fought  and  the  nation  pre 
served,  through  bloody  sacrifice.  With  one  accord  the 
nation  turned  toward  its  armies  and  showered  its  blessings 

O 

upon  them.  The  successful  generals,  the  brave  soldiers— 
these  were  the  heroes  of  that  time.  Four  years  before, 
regiment  after  regiment  had  marched  through  our  cities 
with  new  banners,  bright  arms,  and  fresh,  youthful  faces, 
followed  by  hopes  and  prayers.  Two  soldiers — Ladd  and 
Whitney — in  the  van  of  this  southward  march,  had  been  slain 
in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  and  their  death  so  impressed 
the  people  that  they  received  a  monument,  and  passed 
into  history  sacredly,  and  by  the  association  of  time  were 
linked  with  the  Eevolutionary  heroes  of  Lexington.  These 
were  the  first  victims  of  the  war.  They  led  that  glorious 
march  of  the  dead,  which,  ere  the  end,  numbered  among  its 
ranks  over  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  just  such  heroes  as  they, 
victims  by  disease  or  mortal  wounds,  of  this  protracted 
struggle  for  a  nation's  life.  Closing  up  the  rear  of  this  pro 
cession,  thousands  were  still  gathering  from  many  hospitals, 
But,  though  so  large  a  number  had  disappeared  by  discharge, 
death,  or  wounds,  their  places  had  been  filled  by  others, 
Altogether  a  million  and  a  half  of  men  had  entered  the 
United  States  service,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  a  million 
still  remained,  of  whom  650,000  were  available  for  active 
duty.  There  were  as  many  effective  soldiers  in  the  army 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  401 

when  the  Confederate  forces  surrendered  as  when,  in  May, 
1864,  Grant  and  Sherman  entered  upon  their  final  campaigns. 

Now  the  record  of  blood  was  all  written,  and  the  scene  of 
four  years  ago  was  reversed.  The  soldiers  were  returning 
:o  their  homes,  and  as  they  passed  through  our  streets  were 
velcomed  back  with  grateful  shouts.  Their  banners  now 
were  tattered,  and  their  arms  and  uniforms  battle-soiled  ; 
many  an  absent  one  was  mourned;  and  the  fresh  faces 
which  went  forth  from  us  returned  worn  with  the  hardships 
of  war.  But  they  had  served  their  country,  and  their  step 
was  proud  and  triumphant. 

Over  two  hundred  thousand  soldiers  made  up  the  grand 
spectacle.  They  were  assembled  in  one  body  for  the  first 
ime.  They  were  gathered  together  from  every  battle-field 
of  the  war — from  the  Ohio  to  New  Orleans,  from  New 
Orleans  to  Olustee  and  from  Olustee  to  the  Potomac.  Those 
who  looked  upon  that  spectacle  were  reminded  of  that  first 
stage  of  the  war  when  the  national  capital  was  threatened, 
and  when  the  first  recruits  rushed  to  its  rescue.  They 
looked  upon  a  living,  moving  demonstration  of  the  fact  that 
treason  in  a  republic  could  be  subdued,  though  every  rebel 
leader,  from  Davis  and  Stephens  down  to  the  most  petty 
demagogue  of  the  South,  had  prophesied  to  the  contrary. 

But  besides  the  grief  felt  for  the  thousands  of  hero  dead, 
there  was  another  sorrow  to  mar  the  joy  of  the  grand  re 
view,  for  soldiers,  citizens,  and  the  nation  at  large  missed 
the  welcome  and  presence  of  Lincoln  who  had  called  the 
country's  defenders  into  the  field,  to  whom  they  had  always 
looked  as  father  and  friend.  But  may  we  not  suppose  that 
Lincoln,  though  withdrawn  from  the  earth,  looked  down 
upon  the  sublime  spectacle?  Did  he  not,  as  one  of  our  poets 
has  imagined,  marshal  another  host,  composed  of  those  who, 


402  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

like  him,  had  been  victims  of  this  civil  war,  and  who  no 
participated  in  this  grand  review? 

How  beautifully  expressed,  how  feelingly  rhymed  ha 
this  idea  been  by  Henry  Howard  Brownell,  in  tiro  followin 
poem,  the  greatest  and  most  exquisite  of  any  called  forth  b; 
the  war.  Let  it  be  read  again  by  the  peaceful  fireside;  le 
those  who  have  grown  into  youth  and  manhood  since  thj 
rebellion  read  and  study  it,  for  there  is  patriotism  in  everj 
line  and  glorious  history  in  every  verse.  Let  it  be  re 
cited  again  in  this  campaign  by  the  followers  of  the  brav< 
Logan  to  whom  this  nation  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  whicl 

o  o 

it  can   only   pay  by  honoring   him   as  his   great   services 
deserve : 

uSo,  from  the  fields  they  win, 

Our  men  are  marching  home — 

A  million  are  marching  home! 
To  the  cannon's  thundering  din, 

And  banners  on  mast  and  dome 
And  the  ships  come  sailing  in 

With  all  their  ensigns  dight, 

As  erst  for  a  great  sea-fight. 

'Let  every  color  fly, 

Every  pennon  flaunt  in  pride; 
Wave,  Starry  Flag,  on  high ! 
Float  in  the  Bunny  sky, 

Stream  o'er  the  stormy  tide! 
For  every  stripe  of  stainless  hue, 
And  every  star  in  the  field  of  blue, 
Ten  thousand  of  the  brave  and  true 

Have  laid  them  down  and  died. 

"And  in  all  our  pride  to-day 

We  think,  with  a  tender  pain, 
Of  those  so  far  away, 
They  will  not  come  home  again. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  403 

"And  our  boys  had  fondly  thought, 

To-day,  in  marching  by, 
From  the  ground  so  dearly  bought, 
And  the  fields  so  bravely  fought, 

To  have  met  their  Father's  eye. 

"But  they  may  not  see  him  in  place, 
Nor  their  ranks  be  seen  of  him ; 
We  look  for  the  well-known  face, 
And  the  splendor  is  strangely  dim. 

"Perished?— who  was  it  said 

Our  leader  had  passed  away? 
Dead  ?    Our  President  dead  ? 
He  has  not  died  for  a  day  I 

"We  mourn  for  a  little  breath 

Such  as,  late  or  soon,  dust  yields; 
But  the  dark  flower  of  death 
Blooms  in  the  fadeless  fields. 

"We  looked  on  a  cold  still  brow, 
But  Lincoln  could  yet  survive ; 
He  never  was  more  alive, 
Never  nearer  than  now. 

"For  the  pleasant  season  found  him 
Guarded  by  faithful  hands, 
In  the  fairest  of  Summer  Lands ; 
With  his  own  brave  staff  around  him, 
There  our  President  stands. 

"There  they  are  all  at  his  side, 
The  noble  hearts  and  true, 
That  did  all  men  might  do — 
Then  slept,  with  their  swords,  and  died. 

"Of  little  the  storm  has  reft  us 

But  the  brave  and  kindly  clay — 

('Tis  but  dust  where  Lander  left  us, 

And  but  turf  where  Lyon  lay.) 

"There's  Winthrop,  true  to  the  end, 
And  Ellsworth  of  long  ago 
(First  fair  young  head  laid  low!) 
There's  Baker,  the  brave  old  friend, 
And  Douglas,  the  friendly  foe. 


404  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"(Baker,  that  still  stood  up 

When  'twas  death  on  either  hand ; 
'Tis  a  soldier's  part  to  stoop, 
But  the  Senator  must  stand.) 

"The  heroes  gather  and  form — 

There's  Cameron,  with  his  scars, 
Sedgwick,  of  siege  and  storm, 
And  Mitchell,  that  joined  his  stars. 

"Wiuthrop,  of  sword  aud  pen, 

Wads  worth,  with  silver  hair, 
Mansfield,  ruler  of  men, 
And  brave  McPhersou  are  there. 

"Birney,  who  led  so  long, 

Abbott,  born  to  command, 
Elliott,  the  bold,  and  Strong, 
Who  fell  on  the  hard-fought  strand. 

"Lytle,  soldier  and  bard, 

And  the  Ellets,  sire  and  son; 
Ransom,  all  grandly  scarred, 
And  Redfield,  no  more  on  guard, 
(But  Allatooua  is  won!) 

"Reno,  of  pure  desert, 

Kearney,  with  heart  of  flame, 
And  Russell,  that  hid  his  hurt 
Till  the  final  death-blot  came. 

"Terrill,  dead  where  he  fought, 

Wallace,  that  would  not  yield, 

And  Su inner,  who  vainly  sought 

A'grave  on  the  foughten  field, 

"(But  died  ere  the  end  he  saw, 

With  years  and  battles  outworn). 
There's  Harker,  of  Kenesaw, 
And  Ulric  Dahlgrcn,  and  Shaw, 
That  slept  with  his  hope  forlorn. 

'•Bayard,  that  knew  not  fear, 

(True  as  the  knight  of  yore), 

And  Putnam,  and  Paul  Revere, 

Worthy  the  names  they  bore. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  405 

"Allen,  who  died  for  others, 

Bryan,  of  gentle  fame, 
And  the  brave  New  England  brothers 
That  have  left  us  Lowell's  name. 

"Home,  at  last,  from  the  wars — 
Steadman,  the  staunch  and  mild, 
And  Janeway,  our  hero-child, 
Home,  with  his  fifteen  scars. 

"There's  Porter,  ever  in  front, 
True  son  of  a  sea-king  sire, 
And  Christian  Foote,  and  Dupont 
(Dupout,  who  led  his  ships 
Bounding  the  first  eclipse 
Of  thunder  and  of  fire). 

"There's  Ward,  with  his  brave  death-wounds, 

And  Cumnaings,  of  spotless  name, 
And  Smith,  who  hurtled  his  rounds 
When  deck  and  hatch  were  aflame. 

"Wainright,  steadfast  and  true, 

Rodgers,  of  brave  sea-blood, 
And  Craven,  with  ship  and  crew 
Sunk  in  the  salt  sea  flood. 

4 'And,  a  little  later  to  part, 

Our  captain,  noble  and  dear — 
(Did  they  deem  thee,  then,  austere? 
Dayton !     O,  pure  and  kindly  heart! 
Thine  is  the  seaman's  tear). 

"All  such,  and  many  another 

(Ah,  list  how  long  to  name!) 
That  stood  like  brother  by  brother, 
And  died  on  the  field  of  fame. 

"And  around — (for  there  can  cease 

This  earthly  trouble) — they  throng, 
The  friends  that  had  passed  in  peace, 
The  foes  that  have  seen  their  wrong. 


40t)  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"(But,  a  little  from  the  rest, 
With  sad  eyes  looking  down, 
And  brows  of  softened  frown, 
With  stern  arms  on  the  chest, 
Are  two,  standing  abreast — 
Stonewall  and  Old  John  Brown). 

"But  the  stainless  and  the  true, 

These  by  their  President  stand, 
To  look  on  his  last  review, 
Or  march  with  the  old  command. 

"And  lo,  from  a  thousand  fields, 

From  all  the  old  battle-haunts, 
A  greater  army  than  Sherman  wields, 
A  grander  review  than  Grant's ! 

"Gathered  home  from  the  grave, 
Risen  from  sun  and  rain — 

Rescued  from  wind  and  wave 
Out  of  the  stormy  main — 

The  legions  of  our  brave 
Are  all  in  their  lines  again ! 

"Many  a  stout  corps  that  went, 
Full-ranked,  from  camp  and  tent, 

And  brought  back  a  brigade; 
Many  a  brave  regiment, 

That  mustered  only  a  squad. 

"The  lost  battalions, 

That,  when  the  fight  went  wrong, 
Stood  and  died  at  their  guns — 
The  storniers  steady  and  strong. 

"With  their  best  blood  that  bought 

Scarp,  and  ravelin,  and  wall — 
The  companies  that  fought 
Till  a  corporal's  guard  was  all. 

"Many  a  valiant  crew, 

That  passed  in  battle  and  wreck— 
Ah,  so  faithful  and  true! 

They  died  on  the  bloody  deck, 
They  sank  in  the  soundless  blue. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  407 


"All  the  loyal  and  bold 

That  lay  on  a  soldier's  bier — 
The  stretchers  borne  to  the  rear, 
The  hammocks  lowered  to  the  hold. 

"The  shattered  wreck  we  hurried, 

In  death-fight,  from  deck  and  port — 
The  Blacks  that  Wagner  burried — 
That  died  in  the  Bloody  Fort! 

"Comrades  of  camp  and  mess, 

Left,  as  they  lay,  to  die, 
In  the  battle's  sorest  stress, 

When  the  storm  of  fight  swept  by; 
They  lay  in  the  wilderness — 

Ah!  where  did  they  not  lie? 

"In  the  tangled  swamp  they  lay, 
They  lay  so  still  on  the  sward  I — 

They  rolled  in  the  sick-bay, 

Moaning  their  lives  away — 
They  flushed  in  the  fevered  ward. 

"They  rotted  in  Libby,  yonder, 

They  starved  in  the  foul  stockade — 
Hearing  afar,  the  thunder 
Of  the  Union  cannonade. 

"But  the  old  wounds  all  are  healed, 

And  the  dungeoned  limbs  are  free — 
The  Blue  Frocks  rise  from  the  field, 
The  Blue  Jackets  out  of  the  sea. 

"They've  'scaped  from  the  torture-den, 

They've  broken  the  bloody  sod, 
They're  all  come  to  life  agen  !— 
The  third  of  a  million  men 
That  died  for  thee  and  for  God! 

"A  tenderer  green  than  May 
The  Eternal  Season  wears — 

The  blue  of  our  summer's  day 
Is  dim  and  pallid  to  theirs — 

The  horror  faded  away, 
And  'twas  heaven  all  unawares. 


408  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"Tents  on  the  Infinite  Shore! 

Flags  in  the  azuline  sky, 
Sails  on  the  seas  once  more! 

To-day,  in  the  heaven  on  high, 
All  under  arms  once  more! 

"The  troops  are  all  in  their  lines, 
The  guidons  flutter  and  play; 
But  every  bayonet  shines, 
For  all  must  march  to-day. 

"What  lofty  pennons  flaunt? 
What  mighty  echoes  haunt, 

As  of  great  guns,  o'er  the  main? 

Hark  to  the  sound  again — 
The  Congress  is  all  ataunt ! 

The  Cumberland's  manned  again  J 

"All  the  ships  and  their  men 
Are  in  line  of  battle  to-day — 

All  at  quarters,  as  when 
Their  last  roll  thundered  away — 

All  at  their  guns,  as  then, 
For  the  fleet  salutes  to-day. 

"The  armies  have  broken  camp 
On  the  vast  and  sunny  plain, 
The  drums  are  rolling  again; 
With  steady,  measured  tramp, 
They're  marching  all  again. 

"With  alignment  firm  and  solemn, 

Once  again  they  form 
In  mighty  square  and  column — 
But  never  for  charge  and  storm. 

"The  old  flag  they  died  under 

Floats  above  them  on  the  shore, 
And  on  the  great  ships  yonder 
The  ensigns  dip  once  more — 
And  once  again  the  thunder 
Of  the  thirty  guns  and  four! 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  409 

"In  solid  platoons  of  steel, 

Under  heaven's  triumphal  arch, 
The  long  lines  break  and  wheel, 
And  the  word  is  'Forward,  march ! ' 

4 'The  colors  ripple  o'erhead, 

The  drums  roll  up  to  the  sky, 
And  with  martial  time  and  tread 

The  regiments  all  pass  by — 
The  ranks  of  our  faithful  Dead, 

Meeting  their  President's  eye. 

"With  a  soldier's  quiet  pride 

They  smile  o'er  the  perished  pain, 
For  their  anguish  was  not  vain — 
'For  thee,  O  Father,  we  died! 
And  we  did  not  die  in  vain.' 

"March  on,  your  last  brave  mile! 

Salute  him,  Star  and  Lace ! 
Form  round  him,  rank  and  file, 

And  look  on  the  kind,  rough  face ; 
But  the  quaint  and  homely  smile 

Has  a  glory  and  a  grace 
It  never  had  known  erewhile — 

Never,  in  time  and  space. 

"Close  round  him,  hearts  of  pride! 
Press  near  him,  side  by  side — 

Our  Father  is  not  alone  I 
For  the  Holy  Eight  ye  died, 
And  Christ,  the  Crucified, 

Waits  to  welcome  his  own." 

Who   shall   measure  the   joy   of   the  grand  review?     It 

as    a    great    day    for    Washington — greater    even    than 

hen  the  old  Sixth  Corps  sent  the  enemy  whirling  back- 

itard;  greater  still  for  the  Boys  in  Blue  that  had  marched 

Irom  Atlanta  to  the  sea,  "  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  a  pillar 

If  fire  by  night;"    a  great  day  for  every  soldier;  a  great 

jlay  especially  for  Gen.  John  A.  Logan,  as  it  made  good 


410  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  brave  words  uttered  by  him  in  his  address  to  his  com 
mand  at  Memphis,  February  12,  1863,  words  that  will  g< 
ringing  down  through  the  camps  of  time  unchallenged  an< 
re-echoed  by  every  honest,  manly  and  loyal  heart.  In  at 
luding  to  the  "falsifying  of  public  sentiment  at  home,' 
Gen.  Logan  said:  "Intriguing  political  tricksters,  dem 
agogues  and  time-servers,  whose  corrupt  deeds  are  but  i 
faint  reflex  of  their  corrupt  hearts,  seem  determined  to  drivi 
our  people  to  anarchy  and  destruction.  The  day  is  not  fa 
distant  when  traitors  and  cowards,  North  and  South,  wil 
cower  before  the  indignation  of  an  outraged  people.  Marcl 
bravely  onward  I" 

They  did  march  onward,  and  Gen.  Logan  was  with  them 
They  marched  onward  and  to  victory,  with  their  eyes  fixe< 
upon  the  star-lit  flag,  keeping  step  to  the  music  of  thi 
Union,  carrying  tbeir  lives  in  their  hands,  and  by  the  grea 
hail  hereafter  will  be  known  as  heroes  worthy  of  the  name 

When  active  duty  in  the  field  was  over,  and  the  "  war  fo 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  had  become  an  establishcx 
fact,"  the  event  for  which  he  had  so  ardently  longed,  he  a 
once  tendered  his  resignation,  stating  that  he  was  unwillinj 
to  draw  pay  when  not  in  active  service.  On  the  day  of  thi 
grand  review  in  Washington,  as  a  mark  of  the  esteem  ii 
which  he  was  held  by  Generals  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  a; 
a  recognition  of  the  promotion  to  which  he  would  have  beci 
entitled  had  the  war  continued,  Gen.  Logan  was  appointee 
to  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  Gen.  Logan  was  offered  the  po 
sition  of  Minister  to  Mexico,  but  declined.  In  1806  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  from  the  State  at  large  in  Illinois  byi 
majority  of  55,1)87,  and  in  the  Fortieth  Congress  was  oneoi 
the  managers  of  the  impeachment  of  President  Johnson.  Ii 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  411 

:he  next,  the  Forty-first  Congress,  Logan  began  to  make  his 
nark  as  a  statesman.  He  was  then  Chairman  of  the  Military 
Committee,  and  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  investigating 
.he  sale  of  cadetships  to  the  naval  and  military  academies. 
1  number  of  Southern  carpet-bag  Republicans,  it  was 
bought,  had  swelled  their  exchequer  in  this*wise.  Pursuing 
he  investigation  with  assiduity,  Logan  caught  a  South  Car- 
)lina  carpet-bagger  named  Whittemorc,  and  exposed  him  in 
,  speech  in  the  House.  To  save  expulsion,  Whittcmore  re 
igned  and  went  back  to  his  profession  of  lay  preacher. 

In  January,  1868,  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  as  a 
bark  of  their  appreciation  for  his  brilliancy  as  a  general, 
elected  Gen.  Logan  Commander-in-chief  of  their  praise 
worthy  order,  and  in  May,  1869,  and  also  the  succeeding  year 
e  was  honored  by  re-elections  to  the  same  high  position. 

In  1870  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  elected  Gen.  Logan  to 
he  United  States  Senate,  in  which  position  he  distinguished 
imself  as  in  all  other  places  to  which  he  had  been  called  by 
he  people.  His  reputation  in  the  House  gave  him  most 
espectful  attention  in  the  Senate,  where  he  had  sat  but  a 
ew  months  before  he  was  recognized  as  a  Republican  leader 
n  the  Senatorial  body.  At  the  expiration  of  his  term,  in 
876,  he  was  a  candidate  for  re-election,  but  there  was  an 
lement  in  Illinois  so  hostile  to  him  that  they  succeeded  in 
stablishing  a  coalition  between  the  Democrats  and  Gran- 
jers,  calling  themselves  Independents,  which  defeated  him, 
blecting  Judge  David  Davis  in  his  stead. 

Logan's  defeat  in  1876  was  only  temporary,  nor  was  it 
wholly  without  advantage  to  him,  for  the  people  felt  that 
in  error  had  been  committed,  that  a  brave,  loyal  and  able 
(Representative,  deserving  of  all  the  honors  they  could  be 
stow,  had  been  neglected,  and  to  acknowledge  their  injustice 


412  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

to  so  noble  a  man  and  soldier,  in  1879  they  re-elected  him 
to  the  Senate  as  successor  to  Hon.  Richard  J.  Oglesby. 

The  real  opposition  to  Logan,  by  which  he  was  defeated 
in  1876,  did  not  come  from  his  own  party,  but  by  reason  of 
a  temporary  triumph  of  the  Democrats  in  the  State,  ob 
tained  by  an  amalgamation  with  Independents.  But  Logan's 
defeat,  more  than  anything  else,  destroyed  again  the  Dem 
ocratic  prestige  in  Illinois,  and  caused  the  return  of  a  Re 
publican  Legislature  at  the  next  election.  This  sudden 
revulsion  of  political  sentiment  in  the  State,  arising  from 
the  cause  named,  made  Logan  more  popular  even  than  he 
was  before,  and  was,  in  a  great  measure,  the  reason  of  his 
nomination  to  the  Vice-Presidency — or  more  properly  speak 
ing,  the  reason  Illinois  urged  him  so  strongly  for  the  Pres 
idency,  for  the  Republicans  considered  it  their  imperative 
duty  to  rebuke  the  spirit  which  sought  to  relegate  to  private 
life  the  most  distinguished  and  worthy  son  of  the  common 
wealth  ;  one  whose  name  sheds  a  lustre  of  glory  on  the 
great  State  of  Illinois. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  413 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

% 

I  have  followed  Gen.  Logan's  career  as  a  soldier  with 
(necessary  brevity,  not  only  on  account  of  limited  space 
but  because  it  is  an  open  book  to  all  Americans ;  his  star 
shines  with  such  brilliancy  in  the  firmament  of  military 
genius  that  every  loyal  sovereign  of  the  nation  knows  its 
beauty,  while  innumerable  pens  have  enbalmed  his  patriotic 
devotion  in  national  history  for  the  present  and  unborn 
generations  to  read  and  admire.  Having  described  his  en- 
jtrance  into  legislative  councils,  let  us  consider  Gen.  Logan 
bow  in  his  career  of  statesmanship,  beginning  with  his 
election  to  the  Illinois  Legislature  in  1852. 

The  school  in  which  John  A.  Logan  was  trained  for  the 
bloodless  battles  of  the  forum  that  have  made  his  name 
jfamous  as  a  debater;  for  the  striking  of  heavy  blows;  for 
impassioned,  and  at  times  ornate  eloquence,  clear  logic ^nd 
'exhaustive  argument,  was  no  ordinary  one,  but  that  of  re 
markable  men. 

The  capital  of  Illinois  was  famous  even  at  that  early  day 
!or  the  strength  and  learning  of  its  bar;  its  far-sighted 
politicians;  its  wit,  keen  as  a  Toledo  blade.  Men  since 
known  in  every  land  and  spoken  of  with  intense  admiration 
ind  deepest  reverence  by  every  tongue,  had  their  homes 
;here,  and  in  their  future  wanderings  never  had  to  bow  the 
vnee  to  intellectual  masters ;  men  who  lived  in  the  times 
that  tested  manhood  to  the  uttermost ; 

"  Men  who  their  duties  know, 
But  know  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dare  maintain." 

Lincoln,  the  ever-to-be  remembered  and  mourned ;  the  man 


414  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    Otf 

of  iron  will,  but  woman's  tender  heart;  the  man  possessed 
of  the  rare  gift  and  knowledge  of  common  sense,  though 
"  not  a  soldier  of  the  classics;"  the  sound  lawyer;  the  hon 
est  advocate;  the  impressive  speaker;  the  breaker  of  bonds 
and  the  apostle  of  Emancipation  was  there. 

Douglas,  powerful,  self-reliant,  massive  in  eloquence,  in 
fact,  argument  and  illustration ;  dauntless  in  his  cham 
pionship  of  what  he  considered  right;  unswerving  in  his 
love  for  the  law  and  the  Union,  though  he  saw  ahead  the 
political  shipwreck  of  his  most  cherished  ambition;  the 
cool,  clear-headed  defender  of  the  Constitution  and  its  most 
able  interpreter  since  Webster  was  there. 

Stephen  T.  Logan,  the  living  lexicon  of  law  and  logic; 
who  fully  comprehended  that  "  reason  is  the  life  of  the 
law;  nay,  the  common  law  itself  is  nothing  else  but  rea 
son;"  the  man  bitter  in  sarcasm,  with  lips  to  thunder 
anathema  or  melt  to  tears  of  pity,  regret  and  remorse;  the 
lawyer  to  whom  the  bench  could  give  no  new  honors,  was 
there  grand  in  the  firmness  and  purity  of  his  character  and 
with  integrity  never  challenged. 

And  others  well  worthy  of  the  bright  companionship  were 
there,  but  we  cannot  call  the  roll.  It  would  be  as  summon 
ing  the  dead  and  making  the  halls  of  Springfield  ring  with 
eloquence  as  it  is  never  likely  to  do  again.  It  was  a  gather 
ing  of  giants;  of  men  of  learning,  nerve,  principle  and 
stern  devotion  to  their  country  and  its  laws,  as  later  years 
brightly  but  sadly  proved.  It  was  a  school  where  none  hut 
the  fittest  could  survive,  and  genius,  study  and  eloquence 
were  strained  to  the  utmost  to  "  keep  the  pace;"  whore 
the  encounters  were  fierce  and  he  who  kept  his  shield  un 
beaten  down,  who  fell  not  in  the  struggle,  must  possess  all 
the  best  and  most  brilliant  elements  of  manhood,  and  would 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  415 

be  forearmed  for  anything  that  might  come  in  the  forensic 
arena  of  the  future. 

It  was  surrounded  by  such  men  and  with  their  precepts 

and  examples  before  him,  that  John  A.  Logan  grew  into 

the  full  stature  of  manhood,  mentally  and  physically,  and 

earned  "that  chastity  of  honor  which  felt  a  stain  like  a 

)low,"  and  early  in  life  (as  previously  remarked)  he  was 

ailed  to  serve  client  and  country  in  court  and  legislative 

aall.     Early,  too,  he  revealed  the  metal  of  which  he  was 

jmade  and  the  temper  of  the  blade  he  used  for  attack  and 

defense  as  occasion  required,  and  which  as  his  enemies  have 

learned,  bears  a  keen  and  a  cutting  edge. 

Even  when  in  the  Illinois  Legislature  he  was  not  afraid  to 
utter  bold  words  and  assume  responsibility  when  duty  de- 
Imanded.  True  to  his  nature,  he  shrank  not  from  the  con- 
I  sequences  and  stamped  his  daring  individuality  upon  all  he 
| uttered,— even  as  he  has  ever  since  done.  No  matter  what 
other  charges  ignorance,  malice  and  jealousy  may  have 
I  trumped  up  against  him,  that  of  cowardice  or  avoiding  the 
issue  has  never  been  one  of  them. 

We  cannot  follow  his  career  year  by  year  and  from  place 
to  place  as  he  steadily  ascended  the  ladder  of  public  honor. 
But  everywhere  and  under  every  circumstance  he  has  been 
faithful  to  the  trusts  reposed  in  him  and  growing  deeper  and 
more  firmly  into  the  popular  heart,  until  he  is  outranked  by 
none,  and  can  calmly  smile  at  those  who  would  whistle  him 
down  the  winds  into  earthly  oblivion. 

General  Logan  was  the  second  native  Illinoisan  elected  to 
Congress  from  that  State.  From  the  time  of  his  taking  his 
place  there  his  name  and  deeds  have  become  national  and 
his  speeches  have  been  spread  broadcast  by  the  press  and  the 
Congressional  Record.  His  history,  consequently,  has  been 


416  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

that  of  the  country,  and  he  fills  no  minor  part  in  the  galaxy 
of  the  great  men  of  America  as  known  in  foreign  lands. 

To  gather  his  speeches  and,  from  them  massed,  form  any 
judgment  of  his  capability,  truth,  justice,  inflexibility  of 
purpose,  correctness  of  judgment  and  claim  to  far  more  than 
ordinary  elocutionary  gifts,  is  beyond  our  power  or  purpose. 
He  accomplished  the  end  in  view  when  delivered,  where  the 
inspiration  of  the  hour  and  their  echoes  (for  the  most  part) 
have  become  lost,  save  as  they  are  now  and  then  awakened  in 
the  chambers  of  some  retentive  memory. 

By  the  "inspiration  of  the  hour,"  however,  we  would  not 
be  understood  us  conveying  the  idea  that  General  Logan 
rushes  in  medias  res  upon  any  subject.  That  he  can  speak 
impromptu  and  well  has  been  often  proved.  He  has  never 
failed  "  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment"  to  say  fitting  and  ap 
preciative  words.  But  in  affairs  of  state,  especially,  his  was 
the  most  careful  and  exhaustive  preparation — the  mastery 
of  all  the  points  pro  and  con.  No  truly  great  speaker  ever 
trusted  to  the  time,  place  and  circumstances.  The  most 
brilliant  rhetorical  efforts  were  the  result  of  labor  and 
thought.  Even  the  next  to  matchless  utterances  of  Webster 
and  the  smoothly  rounded  sentences  of  other  world  famous 
men,  the  electric  telegraphs  strung  from  soul  to  soul  "  smell 
of  the  lamp."  Thus  the  "  inspiration  of  the  hour"  in  the 
sense  we  use  it  with  regard  to  Logan,  is  the  arrangement 
and  polishing  of  the  blocks  already  quarried ;  the  adornment 
of  the  already  gathered  crude  facts  and  widely  sundered  tes 
timony,  and  with  the  case  stated,  *«  He  found  it  a  skeleton 
and  clothed  it  with  life,  color  and  complexion;  he  embraced 
the  cold  statue,  and  by  his  touch  it  grew  into  youth,  health 
and  beauty." 

Listening  to  General  Logan,  one  is  impressed  by  his  earn- 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  417 

estness  as  much  as  the  rapid  enunciation  of  peculiarly  appro 
priate  and  powerful  periods,  and  however  much  you  may 
disagree  with  him,  you  cannot  but  concede  his  honesty  of 
conviction  as  to  the  right  of  the  matter  he  advocates  and  his 
determination  to  sustain  it,  no  matter  who  may  fall  by  the 
wayside. 

Forced  by  the  imperative  need  of  condensation,  we  re 
sist  the  temptation  of  making  liberal  extracts  from  the 
public  utterances  of  General  Logan,  and  must  be  content 
with  a  brief  notice  of  what  may  be  considered  his  master 
piece  of  argument,  facts,  figures  and  never-answered  state 
ments.  We  refer  to  the  speeches  made  in  the  United 
States  Senate  January  2  and  3,  1883,  and  his  later  one 
on  March  14,  1884,  on  the  bill  for  the  relief  of  Fitz  John 
Porter. 

No  matter  brought  before  the  XLVIIth  and  XLVIIIth 
Congresses  attracted  more  attention  than  this  bill ;  had  in 
it  more  the  suggestions  of  discord  and  aroused  more  of  pas 
sionate  feeling.  It  was  a  question  that  had  been  discussed 
by  all  prominent  men,  politicians  especially;  every  soldier, 
from  the  commander-in-chief  to  the  rank-and-file,  had  made 
it  a  study ;  every  newspaper  in  the  land  had  advocated  one 
side  or  the  other;  the  great  majority  were  committed  by 
strongly  expressed  opinions,  and  politics  becoming  involved, 
the  action  of  one  party  was  as  a  unit  in  favor  of  the 
passage  of  the  bill,  and  the  other,  with  but  a  few  remark 
able  and  scarcely-to-be  accounted  for  exceptions,  opposed 
to  it. 

And  further  than  any  merely  local  or  personal  bearing, 
it  contained  the  decision  of  a  court-martial  of  the  right 
of  Congress  to  decide  whether  or  not  the  said  court-martial 
had  exceeded  its  powers  and  jurisdiction,  and  if  so,  what 


418  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

authority  Congress  could  confer  upon  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  restore  tarnished  honor  and  pay  for  pecu 
niary  losses  sustained. 

And  still  further,  it  re-opened,  as  it  were,  the  history  of 
the  last  war  and  touched  again  with  bitterness  the  causes 
and  effects  that  had  been  laid  to  rest;  re-venomed  many  an 
unpoisoned  sting ;  tore  asunder  scarcely  healed  wounds, 
and  forced  men  into  partisanship  from  which  they  would 
gladly  have  withdrawn  and  totally  ignored.  It  dipped 
again  in  blood  the  laurels  that  had  been  washed  clean  by  the 
tears  of  peace ;  it  scattered  the  wreaths  that  loving  hands  had 
placed  upon  the  graves  of  the  brave — the  re-united  brave, 
for  the  hearts  of  the  living  had  never  forgotten  that  God 
had  planted  the  Palmetto  and  the  Pine  side  by  side;  had  de 
creed  that  their  branches  should  ever-more  intertwine; 
that 

"Together  they  shall  be, 

An  everlasting  charter-bond  forever  for  the  free; 

Of  liberty  the  signet-seal,  the  one  eternal  sign, 

Be  those  united  emblems — the  Palmetto  and  the  Pine." 

It  was  when  the  pulse  of  the  country  was  thus  beating  at 
fever  heat  that  General  Logan  defended  the  principle  ;  op 
posed  the  establishment  of  a  dangerous  and  wrong  prece 
dent;  upheld  the  decree  of  justice,  even  if  stern;  fortified 
the  high  position  of  every  honest  and  brave  soldier,  and 
indirectly,  but  gloriously,  and  with  reverend  homage  upheld 
the  name  and  deeds  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  man  who 
had  "ascended  the  ladder  of  fame  so  high,  from  the  round 
at  the  top  he  stepped  to  the  sky/'  and  won  a  crown  immor 
tal  by  a  martyr's  baptism.  Also  the  sacred  memory  of 
the  lamented  Garfield,  who  was  a  member  of  the  court- 
martial. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  419 

Arrayed  against  General  Logan  were  talent,  learning,  elo 
quence,  rank  and  wealth.  He  swept  them  aside  with  a 
breath;  silenced  into  the  lowest  of  murmurs  malicious  in 
sinuation  and  false  testimony;  overturned  the  most  care 
fully  constructed  theories ;  exposed  the  fallacy  of  thread 
bare  arguments;  winnowed  the  false  from  the  true,  and 
won  greater  renown  than  ever  before. 

He  knew  better  than  any  man,  for  he  had  the  best  oppor 
tunity  for  so  doing,  the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  had  un 
dertaken  ;  the  target  he  made  of  himself  for  those  who  stab 
in  the  back,  and  who  shoot  venomed  arrows  from  be 
hind  ambushes.  Yet  he  shrank  not  and  was  more  than 
equal  to  the  emergency.  More,  because  a  far  less  powerful 
and  testimony-sustained  argument  at  every  point  would 
have  made  him  triumphant  and  caused  him  to  be  fully  sus 
tained  (as  he  was)  by  the  verdict  of  all  unbaised,  thinking 
people. 

The  corner  stones  upon  which  the  entire  elaborate  speech 
was  constructed,  were  but  two,  and  contained  the  simple 
propositions:  "First,  what  is  the  law;  second,  what  is  the 
evidence  applicable  to  that  law  for  this  tribunal  to  ex 
amine."  These  were  the  words  of  General  Logan;  his 
brief,  but  comprehensive  statement  of  the  case,  and  upon 
them  was  builded  the  orthographic  structure  that  for  five 
days  held  Congress  as  is  rarely  done  in  the  first  instance 
and  hours  in  the  second.  The  closing  of  this  remarkable 
speech  is  so  eloquent  and  true  that  we  cannot  refrain  from 
reproducing  it  here: 

"If  this  act  of  wrong,  as  I  deem  it,  shall  be  perpetrated  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  it  will  be  declaring  that 
those  who  failed  in  the  hour  of  trial  are  those  who  shall  be 
honored  in  the  hour  of  triumph;  it  will  be  declaring  to  the 


420  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

world  that  the  record  of  those  in  the  army  who  failed 
the  important  time  is  as  good  as  those  who  sustained  the 
government  ;  that  the  honor  and  glory  of  the  whole  army 
of  the  United  States  shall  not  be  maintained  alone  by  the 
honors  it  won,  but  shall  be  maintained  by  the  honors  lost 
by  its  unworthy  members.  When  we  returned  to  our  homes 
and  our  peaceful  pursuits,  when  the  armies  of  a  million  of 
men  melted  away  into  the  paths  of  peace,  we  then  expected, 
and  ought  to  expect  now,  that  nothing  would  be  done  by 
Congress  at  least  that  would  mar  that  thought  that  should 

O  C 

be  in  every  man's  mind,  that  equality  and  justice  should  be 
done  to  all  according  to  the  laws  and  constitution  of  our 
land,  that  justice  should  be  done  the  living  and  that  justice 
also  should  be  meted  out  to  the  reputation  of  the  dead. 

"So  then,  for  the  honor  of  this  nation,  let  not  its  represen 
tatives  mar  the  record  that  loyalty  made  in  behalf  of  this 
government  and  for  the  benefit  of  this  people. 

"I  have  deemed  it  to  be  my  duty  as  a  member  of  this  body 
to  oppose  at  all  times  a  proposition  of  this  character,  be 
cause  I  believe  it  to  be  wrong  in  theory  and  certainly  wrong 
in  practice.  I  believe  it  will  demoralize  the  army  and  have 
a  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  country. 

"1  say  in  all  kindness  to  the  other  side  of  this  Chamber  (it 
will  perhaps  have  no  effect),  your  course,  assisted  by  a  few 
of  our  side  in  this  case,  will  prevent  the  people  of  this 
country,  as  long  as  you  shall  proceed  in  this  way,  from  hav 
ing  confidence  that  you  intend  to  administer  the  affairs  of 
the  government  fairly.  The  opening  of  the  doors  for  Fitz 
John  Porter  does  not  mean  Fitz  John  Porter.  It  means 
breaking  down  the  barrier,  the  wall  between  the  good  and 
the  bad  and  those  who  failed  in  time  of  trial  and  those  who 
did  their  duty.  It  means  opening  the  door  on  the  retired- 
list  to  Porter  and  to  other  men  who  failed  us  in  our  trials 
who  shall  follow  in  his  wake.  It  means  more.  I  do  not 
care  what  a  few  gentlemen  who  were  in  the  Union  army 
may  say,  I  do  not  care  what  a  few  gentlemen  who  were  not  in 
the  Union  army  may  say  ;  but  the  great  body  of  the  American 
people  do  not  believe  in  breaking  down  the  barriers  between 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  421 

the  men  who  failed  in  time  of  need  and  the  men  who  stood 
at  their  posts. 

4  *  When  T  say  that  I  am  speaking  of  our  loyal  people,  I 
mean  that  the  people  do  not  believe  in  your  coming  here  to 
regulate  courts-martial  for  us  during  the  war.  They  do  not 
believe  it  just;  they  do  not  believe  it  is  right.  I  am  speak 
ing  in  truth  to  you,  and  the  people  will  emphasize  it  to  you 
hereafter.  Let  your  Confederacy  regulate  its  own  courts- 
martial  while  it  existed  in  opposition  to  this  Union,  but  do 
not  come  here  from  under  that  flag  with  numbers  sufficient 
to  put  disgraced  men  back  in  the  army,  to  cast  slurs  upon 
our  men  who  did  their  duty,  to  trample  in  the  dust  the  au 
thority  that  suppressed  your  Confederacy.  Let  not  your 
feelings  go  that  far.  If  they  do,  I  tell  you  that  more  years 
than  you  think  will  pass  over  your  heads  before  you  will 
have  the  confidence  of  the  American  people. 

"There  are  some  friends  on  this  side  of  the  Chamber  who 
join  with  the  other  side.  They  are  entitled  to  their  views. 
I  say  to  them,  you  will  open  the  doors  to  danger  in  this 
country  when  you  do  this  act.  It  is  not  an  act  of  kindness 
to  this  man;  it  is  an  act  of  injustice  to  the  army;  it  is  an 
act  of  injustice  to  the  loyal  people  of  this  country  ;  it  is  an 
act  of  injustice  to  the  memory  of  Lincoln  and  those  who 
were  associated  with  him  at  the  time ;  it  is  trampling  under 
foot  the  law  and  the  facts.  You  who  were  their  friends  in  the 
hour  of  trial,  you  who  stood  by  them,  should  not  falter  now. 
You  are  to-day  doing  that  which  you  would  not  have  done 
ten  years  ago.  But  to-day  the  consciences  of  some  people 
are  getting  so  easy  that  we  must  do  everything  that  is  asked 
for  men  who  failed  us  in  the  hour  of  our  greatest  danger, 
for  men  who  are  entitled  to  nothing  except  what  they  re 
ceived.  We  are  asked  in  charity,  which  is  no  charity,  to  vio 
late  the  law,  to  violate  the  proper  rules  of  civil  conduct,  to 
violate  the  judgment  of  a  court,  to  violate  the  order  of  a 
President,  made  according  to  law  and  in  justice,  as  shown  at 
that  time  and  now.  I  hope  at  least  that  men  who  have  stood 
by  the  country  in  the  hour  of  trial  will  not  weaken  in  the 


422  LIFE    AM)    Pl'HLIC   SERVICES   OF 

hour  of  triumph  in  the  interests  of  those  whose  triumph 
would  have  proved  disastrous  to  the  country. 

''The  conscientious  feeling  that  I  have  performed  my  duty 
according  to  my  honest  convictions  to  my  country,  to  the 
honor  of  our  now  faithful  little  army,  to  my  comrades  in 
arms  during  the  war,  to  the  living  and  the  dead  that  took 
part  in  the  judgment  of  the  court,  to  the  loyal  people  that 
loved  this  country  and  helped  to  save  it,  shall  be  in  my  own 
breast  through  life  my  reward  for  my  action  in  this  case." 
Dry  detail  and  statistics  were  supplemented  and  inter 
woven  with  flashes  that  controlled  attention  and  compelled 
admiration.  Beyond  all  question,  this  was  the  speech  of 
the  sessions:  not  an  ex  parte  one,  for  the  records  of  both 
the  Northern  and  Southern  army  had  been  made  to  yield  up 
everything  bearing  upon  the  question  at  issue.  It  was 
exhaustive.  Not  only  were  eye-witnesses,  soldiers  and  offi 
cers  (theoretically)  placed  upon  the  stand,  but  geography, 
topography,  engineering,  were  summoned,  and  the  secret 
whispers  of  the  lightning  became  audible. 

Upon  the  merits  of  the  case  it  is  not  our  province  to  express 
an  opinion.  From  the  Congress  of  the  nation  General  Logan 
appealed  to  the  Congress  of  the  world,  and  the  verdict  was 
pronounced  and  favorable.  With  the  speeches,  as  speeches, 
we  have  a  right  to  deal.  When  given  to  the  public,  such 
things  become  their  property  and  nothing  of  private  or  per 
sonal  right  is  outraged  by  free  discussion  and  critical  analy 
sis.  The  eyes  of  time  are  sharp  and  look  through  powerful 
microscopic  lenses,  and  are  as  quick  to  discover  faults  as 
enemies  are  to  magnify  a  grain  of  sand  into  a  mountain. 

That  Logan's  speeches  were  perfection  in  all  the  elements  of 
diction,  eloquence  of  expression  and  the  inevitably  best 
words  at  all  times,  cannot  be  claimed — could  not  for  any  ex 
tempore  one.  Some  one  has  said  that  "  no  man  dare  to  bo 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  423 

reported  as  the  words  fall  from  his  lips,"  and  the  saying  is 
a  true  one.  In  the  heat  of  debate  men  are  carried  beyond 
the  mere  "padding"  of  words  by  the  thought  to  be  en 
forced.  They  have  in  view  more  the  end  to  be  obtained 
than  the  flowers  growing  along  the  path  leading  to  it,  and 
in  the  "torrent,  tempest  and  the  whirlwind  of  passion''  it 
is  very  hard  to  *  *  beget  a  temperance  that  may  give  it 
smoothness." 

Strength  and  truth,  we  fancy,  were  more  the  purpose  of 
General  Logan  than  any  oratorical  display,  and  that  he  suc 
ceeded  most  admirably  in  these  particulars  is  beyond  dis 
pute.  The  great  majority  of  the  press  have  so  declared; 
have  praised  in  no  measured  or  feeble  terms,  and  their  de 
cision  is  final  as  to  the  future,  for  "after  your  death  you 
were  better  to  have  a  bad  epitaph  than  their  ill  report  while 
you  live." 

Looking  at  these  speeches  after  the  lapse  of  time,  and 
when  the  waves  of  passion  are  at  rest,  there  can  be  but  one 
view  taken  of  them,  save  when  some  all-controlling  interest 
sways  judgment  and  embitters  and  warps  reason.  Setting 
these  aside,  the  careful  reader  will  find  them  bristling  with 
points  sharp  as  a  bayonet;  fair  in  statement  and  deduction; 
free  from  all  vulgar  personality;  free  from  it  entirely, 
except  where  the  necessity  of  the  case  imperatively  forces 
such  mention ;  free  from  all  low  prejudice ;  free  from 
intolerant  partisanship ;  free  from  the  slightest  bias  of  sec 
tionalism  ;  non-political ;  free  from  any  ad  captandum  or 
egotistical  ipse  dixit  style;  a  bald,  even  if  bold,  statement 
of  fact  and  circumstance;  the  collated  testimony  of  others, 
rather  than  the  opinions  of  self;  speeches  in  defence  of  the 
army  of  the  past  and  sustaining  the  high  code  in  the  future ; 
plain,  logical,  convincing;  covering  all  possible  points; 


424  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

speeches  upon  which  General  Logan,  or  any  man,  migl 
safely  rest  his  reputation,  his  name  and  his  fame. 

Quotation  from  them  would  illustrate  and  prove  ever 
one  of  these  assertions;  would  fully  sustain  all  we  ha\ 
said  of  them.  Their  wide  reading  has  obviated  the  nece! 
sity  of  this,  and  it  is  safe  to  leave  them  to  the  judgment  c 
time,  secure  of  the  decision  that  will  follow.  Yes,  \\ 
might  look  confidently  for  a  decision  establishing  him  in  th 
hearts  of  his  countrymen,  where  he  belongs,  but  for  th 
fierce  beating  of  calumny,  hurled  by  political  enemies  an 
gathering  force  by  accretion  of  falsehoods.  The  bittt 
party  spirit  of  modern  times  conceives  scandal,  which  it  suj 
ports  by  every  sin  that  can  lend  it  color.  Therefore,  do 
repeat  the  facts  in  Logan's  life  that  all  falsehood  may  I 
again  and  again  disproved.  Let  him  stand  in  the  glare  c 
truth,  and  his  beautiful  armor  will  be  seen  glistening  and  r< 
fleeting  back  rays  of  purity  and  honor. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  425 


CHAPTER  XV. 

It  is  but  natural  that  GeneralJohn  A.  Logan  should  have 
enemies ;  no  truly  great  men  are  without  them ;  they  are  like 
the  barnacles  on  a  ship,  or  weeds  among  useful  products  of 
the  field ;  the  most  careful  tillage  cannot  destroy  them ; 
they  thrive  in  all  seasons,  regardless  of  sunshine  or  rain. 
Men  are  like  plants  in  many  particulars ;  some  grow  rank 
with  fine  stalks,  only  to  mature  into  cheat;  others  are  like 
thistles  to  plague  the  world,  while  yet  others  apply  them 
selves  like  suckers  to  stately,  promising  growths;  few  there 
are  who  thrive  through  all  the  retarding  influences  of  this 
tles,  suckers  and  cheat.  I  will  not  give  a  parable,  but  the 
enemies  of  General  Logan  may  not  inaptly  be  regarded  as 
the  tares  which  the  fertile  and  glorious  example  of  his  life 
have  attracted. 

I  have  already  reported  the  facts  concerning  General  Lo 
gan's  enlistment  as  a  soldier  for  the  Union,  and  disproved 
the  malicious  reports  of  his  original  sympathy  with  the 
South,  but  as  these  same  unfounded  charges  will  still  be 
reported,  particularly  through  the  campaign,  I  want  to 
emphasize  the  proof  of  his  consistent  loyalty  by  reporting 
the  following  remarks  made  by  Gen.  Logan  in  the  Senate, 
on  March  23,  1881: 

"  Mr.  President,  I  have  taken  but  slight  notice  of 
slanders  touching  my  action  in  any  case.  But,  sir,  since 
the  year  1866  my  enemies  have  so  persistently  pursued  me 
with  falsehoods  touching  my  action  in  1861,  that  I  now  feel 
it  to  be  my  duty  to  place  on  record  the  facts,  that  those 


426  LIFE    AM)    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

who  come  after  me  may  know  the  truth  as  it  was  and  is 
During  the  early  part  of  the  year  1861,  whe: 
secession  was  rampant  in  this  city  and  in  the  halls  of  Con 
gress,  and  while  I  had  an  opportunity  of  showing  where  in; 
sympathies  were,  whether  with  the  Union  or  not,  Mr 
Adrain,  of  New  Jersey,  proposed  the  following  resolutio; 
in  the  House  of  Representatives:  4  Resolved,  that  we  full 
approve  of  the  bold  and  patriotic  act  of  Major  Anderson  i: 
withdrawing  from  Fort  Moultrie  to  Fort  Sumpter,  and  o 
the  determination  of  the  President  to  maintain  that  fearles 
officer  in  his  present  position;  and  that  we  will  support  th 
President  in  all  the  constitutional  measures  to  enforce  th 
laws  and  preserve  the  Union.'  ' 

Upon  this  resolution  Mr.  Logan  voted  "aye,"  and  adde< 
that  it  "received  his  unqualified  support."  This  he  re-assertei 
in  the  speech  of  which  we  have  made  mention,  and  no  on< 
was  bold  enough  to  dispute  the  assertion  as  not  being  true 
And  he  did  more.  He  proved  by  the  most  unanswerable 
testimony  that  every  word  breathed  against  his  patrioti 
standing  was  false  to  the  very  core.  He  brought  forwar< 
the  statements  of  his  Democratic  opponents  to  give  emphasi 
to  his  loyalty  of  thought,  deed  and  purpose;  produced  tin 
unsolicited  letters  of  Senators  J.  Q.  C.  Lamar  and  J.  L 
Pugh;  demolished  the  cobweb  castles  of  his  traducers  bj 
hundreds  of  letters  and  affidavits,  and  in  the  end  did  no 
leave  the  base  lie  a  foot  to  stand  upon. 

His  self-vindication  was  perfect  and  triumphant;  hi* 
refutation  of  the  villainous  and  viperous  slanders  most  com 
plete  and  absolute.  We  cannot  give  the  speech  in  extensc 
(as  we  could  wish)  but  it  is  printed  in  the  Congressiona 
Record;  is  a  matter  of  history  ;  anyone  can  read  it  whc 
wills,  and  we  cannot  but  have  a  very  poor  opinion  of  the 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  427 

honesty  of  any  man  (who,  after  reading  it  with  unbiased 
mind,)  attempts  to  pick  flaw  or  find  blot  in  the  purity  of 
purpose  and  lofty  patriotism  of  Gen.  Logan. 

We  are  aware  that  we  have  wasted  time  and  words  in  re 
counting  this  matter;  that  it  was  unnecessary  so  to  do. 
This  serpent  of  infamous  falsehood  long  since  stung  itself 
to  death,  and  the  venomed  shafts  could  not  find  a  single 
weak  spot  in  the  armor  of  the  man.  But  there  may  still  be 
some  who,  from  selfish  motives  H>r  the  jealousy  that  is  "  cruel 
as  the  grave,"  desire  to  keep  the  foul  story  afloat.  In  such 
a  case,  what  we  have  written  is  due  to  the  man;  to  those 
with  whom  he  associated  ;  to  his  country,  and  to  those 
dearer  to  him  than  all  save  an  unsullied  escutcheon  in 
private  life,  in  camp,  upon  the  buttle-field,  and  as  one  of  the 
representatives  of  a  great  nation. 

To  such  men,  a  thousand-fold  more  than  ordinary  citi 
zens,  "private  credit  is  wealth,  public  honor  is  security; 
the  feather  that  adorns  the  royal  bird  supports  its  flight; 
strip  him  of  his  plumage,  and  you  fix  him  to  the  earth." 
Indeed,  to  one  whose  aim  of  life  has  been  to  stand  before 
the  world  as  the  hero  of  Marignano,  Aquadello  and  Battle  of 
the  Spurs  * '  sans puer  et  sans  reproche,"  it  is  his  all. 

Yet  there  is  another  point  so  clearly  demonstrated  by  his 
personal  acts  and  aspirations  that  we  cannot  pass  it  un 
noticed.  It  is  the  perfectly  clean  life-record  of  the  man. 
During  all  his  years  the  honesty  of  General  Logan  has  never 
been  questioned  or  slurred.  Politically  or  privately  there 
has  never  been  found  stain  or  blemish,  and  none  have  ever 
been  hinted  at.  No  public  trust  has  ever  been  betrayed  by 
him.  He  has  stood  sternly  and  completely  aloof  from  all 
of  public  or  private  jobbery.  His  statesmanship  and  his 
personal  character  have  alike  been  pure,  and  his  every  official 


428  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

act  done  for  the  benefit  of  his  constituents  and  his  country. 
His  labors  have  been  excessive,  heavy,  engrossing.  He  has 
given  the  best  of  his  years  and  talents  to  the  end  for  which 
he  was  elected,  not  the  accumulation  of  wealth  by  question 
able  methods,  and  stands  to-day  with  undefiled  hands  and 
untarnished  honor,  a  living  and  a  striking  proof  of  the 
power  to  resist  sordid  temptation,  rise  superior  to  selfish 
ends  and  to  live  for  the  greatest  good  and  the  highest  glory 
of  his  native  land  and  mankind. 

That  this  statement  is  true  in  its  fullest  and  most  com 
prehensive  sense,  those  who  have  the  entree  of  his  home 
and  share  his  confidence  will  attest.  Very  few  have  such 
privileges  and,  therefore,  very  few  are  in  a  situation  to 
rightly  judge  how  arduous  has  been  his  toil  and  how  unre- 
paid,  except  that  reward  which  follows  the  doing  of  good 
deeds  and  the  keeping  of  the  golden  rule. 

As  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Military  Affairs, 
an  influential  member  of  the  Judiciary  and  Appropriation 
Committees,  he  has  more  than  enough  to  occupy  his  time, 
even  were  the  hours  quadrupled.  But  this  is  very  far  from 
being  all.  Early  and  late  his  house  is  crowded  with  people 
seeking  advice  and  aid  in  every  possible  shape — seeking 
position  and  money.  And  to  those  in  the  ordinary  walks 
of  business  his  daily  mail  would  not  only  be  a  wonder,  but 
a  terror,  when  the  labor  of  answering  became  apparent. 
The  word  "immense"  (comparatively  used)  is  the  most 
fitting  to  convey  an  idea  of  its  magnitude.  And  the  reply 
ing  is  not  simply  a  matter  of  aye  or  nay.  It  frequently  in 
volves  intricate  points  of  law  and  practice  before  the  various 
departments;  the  minute  searching  of  records;  involves 
thought,  study,  investigation,  abstruse  calculations,  personal 
attention  and  monied  expense — never  repaid.  But  with 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  429 

General  Logan  nothing  suffers  neglect.  The  poor  man  is 
as  welcome  as  he  who  comes  "  clad  in  purple  and  fine  linen," 
and  his  cause  held  even  more  sacred. 

He  attends  to  more  wants  of  individuals  than  any  man 
ever  in  Congress.  This  is  empathically  and  especially  true 
with  regard  to  soldiers.  Their  cause  is  his  cause;  their 
wants  his  wants ;  their  just  recognition  and  reward  his  con 
stant  battle.  From  every  section  of  the  country,  from 
Maine  to  Mississippi;  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to 
those  of  the  Pacific  ;  from  every  State  in  a  Union  undivided, 
come  letters  to  him  from  those  who  wore  the  blue  and  those 
who  wore  the  gray,  and  none  are  ever  neglected.  He  is  too 
magnanimous  to  permit  anything  of  the  past  to  influence  his 
mind  or  his  charity ;  his  love  of  his  race  is  too  catholic  and 
broad  to  be  swayed  by  the  recollections  of  former  years; 
he  was  and  is  too  much  a  good  soldier  not  to  respect  bravery 
in  others ;  too  much  of  a  man  to  harbor  anything  of  revenge 
or  become  narrow-minded  by  prejudice  or  petty  malice.  If 
sometimes  his  soul  is  permitted  to  speak  through  his  lips 
when  justice  and  duty  require,  back  of  it  beats  a  warm  and 
responsive  heart,  and  no  one,  friend  or  foe,  ever  appealed  to 
him  in  vain,  for  in  his  composition  the  elements  that  mark 
the  North  and  the  South  are  strongly  blended — the  inflexible 
honesty  and  icy  firmness  of  the  one,  with  the  chivalry,  the 
fiery  warmth  and  the  open-handed  generosity  of  the  other. 

Henry  V.  Boynton,  of  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  prominent 
as  Gen.  Sherman's  biographer,  and  as  a  writer  of  war  inci 
dents,  contributed  the  following  to  his  paper  on  the  evening 
of  Gen.  Logan's  nomination  to  the  Vice-Presidency,  not 
only  as  a  tribute  to  the  heroism  of  Logan,  but  his  magna 
nimity,  and  chivalrous  regard  for  the  pride  and  honor  of 
others,  as  well.  When  the  Republican  ticket  is  formed  left 


430  LIFK    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


in  front,  General  Logan  comes  marching  along  at  the  head 
of  it.  This  is  nothing  new  for  him.  He  has  been  about 
the  front  in  all  the  party's  hottest  times,  both  when  armies 
were  fighting  to  establish  it,  and  when,  as  its  days  of  peace 
began,  he  gave  all  his  energies  to  help  preserve  what  had 
been  won  in  war. 

"The  roll  of  honor  of  the  Union  armies  does  not  contain  a 
name  worthy  to  stand  above  his,  as  the  best  type  of  volun 
teer  officer  through  all  the  grades  up  to  the  commander  of 
an  army  in  battle.  Before  he  was  of  age  he  was  a  soldier 
in  Mexico.  He  was  a  Democratic  Congressman  from  the 
most  benighted  political  section  of  Illinois  when  Sumter  was 
fired  on.  He  was  a  good  enough  Republican  to  be  a  fight 
ing  officer  for  the  Union,  and  a  very  stubborn  one,  too,  at 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  A  good  many  who  wink  now  as 
they  ask  with  a  knowing  air,  whether  Logan  did  not  once 
contemplate  joining  the  Southern  Confederacy,  had  not 
themselves,  at  that  date,  adopted  the  doctrine  of  coercion. 
Suppose  Logan  did  at  first  consider  such  a  step?  there  were 
scores  of  men,  whose  prominence  in  the  party  is  not  now 
questioned,  who  were  proposing  peace  conferences  or  serv 
ing  on  peace  committees  after  Logan  had  enlisted  as  a 
Union  soldier.  He  never  turned  his  face  toward  the  Con 
federacy — except  in  battle.  But  if  he  had,  in  the  early, 
unsettled  days,  Republicans,  in  view  of  his  magnificent 
service  from  the  hour  the  first  rebel  gun  was  fired,  can  give 
him  full  and  effective  defense  against  all  questioners. 

"He  enlisted  as  a  private  in  18(U,  with  the  prestige  of 
success  as  an  officer  in  Mexico  before  he  became  of  age.  At 
Belmont  he  fought  as  stubbornly  in  the  face  of  disaster  as  he 
had  at  Bull  Run.  He  was  wounded  on  the  Cumberland,  at 
Donelson,  but  in  spite  of  it  reached  the  field  at  Sliiloh  before 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  431 

the  fight  ended.  As  early  as  the  Vicksburg  campaign  he 
was  a  Division  Commander,  and  at  its  close  he  had  risen 
from  the  ranks  to  the  command  of  the  Fifteenth  Corps. 
His  merit  before  Vicksburg  was  shown  by  the  selection  of 
his  division  for  the  post  of  honor  in  marching  to  occupy  the 
city. 

"General  Logan  became  known  to  the  Army  of  the  Cumber 
land  when  the  Armies  of  the  Tennessee,  the  Ohio  and  the  Cum 
berland  united  at  Ringgold  and  faced  southward  for  the 
Atlanta  campaign.  As  these  armies  advanced  along  a  battle 
line  where  for  four  months  the  firing  never  wholly  ceased  by 
day  or  by  night,  everybody  came  to  know  Logan.  Brave, 
vigilant  and  aggressive,  he  won  universal  applause.  Pru 
dent  for  his  men  and  reckless  in  exposing  his  own  person,  he 
excited  general  admiration.  When  the  lines  were  close  his 
own  headquarters  were  often  scarcely  out  of  sight  of  the 
pickets,  and  he  generally  had  a  hand  in  whatever  deadly  work 
might  spring  up  along  his  front. 

"There  was  another  and  later  event  of  great  importance 
that  raised  him  high  in  the  estimation  of  the  friends  of  Gen- 

D 

eral  Thomas.  He  had  been  cut  off  from  joining  his  com 
mand  for  the  march  to  the  sea,  and  subsequently  reported  to 
City  Point  for  orders.  He  reached  there  just  after  the  first 
order  for  General  Thomas'  removal  before  Nashville  had 
been  telegraphed  to  Washington,  and  its  promulgation  de 
layed.  For  the  second  time  General  Grant  had  become  ex 
ceedingly  impatient,  and  decided  to  remove  Thomas.  Upon 
the  appearance  of  Logan,  Grant  ordered  him  to  proceed  at 
once  to  Nashville  and  await  orders.  His  instructions  con 
templated  his  relieving  General  Thomas,  if  on  his  arrival  no 
attack  had  been  made  upon  Hood.  Here  was  a  most  bril 
liant  position  offered — that  of  Commander  of  the  Army  of 


432  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

the  Cumberland,  just  as  it  had  been  reorganized  and  put  in 
order  for  battle,  and  stood  in  its  trenches  ready  for  the  word 
to  advance.  Had  ambition  alone  actuated  him,  here  was  the 
opportunity  of  a  lifetime  of  active  service.  But  instead  of 
obeying  the  spirit  of  his  instructions,  he  proceeded  with  such 
deliberation  as  to  prove  beyond  room  for  cavil,  that  self- 
seeking  was  not  the  motive  which  controlled  Logan  in  the 
war. 

"  He  removed  to  his  new  post  without  undue  haste.  He 
seemed  to  appreciate  the  situation  far  better  than  Grant 
himself.  His  leisurely  journey  to  Nashville  gave  time  for 
the  battle  to  open  under  Thomas.  And  when  it  opened  Lo 
gan  telegraphed  announcing  the  beginning  of  Thomas'  suc 
cess,  and  asking  to  be  ordered  to  his  old  command. 

"There  is  nothing  in  Logan's  military  history  more  credit 
able  than  this.  Many  thousand  veterans  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland  will  have  this  chapter  in  particular  remem 
brance  when  they  vote  this  fall,  and  none  who  read  about  it 
and  admire  fair  play  will  be  apt  to  forget  it." 

To  dwell  further  upon  the  character  of  one  so  well  and 
widely  known;  one  whose  deeds  and  fame  are  cosmopolitan 
and  whose  acts  are  historical,  would  be  useless.  Wherever 
the  English  language  is  spoken — still  further,  wherever 
deeds  of  daring  and  bravery  and  talent  and  honesty  are 
prized,  he  is  respected  and  beloved.  His  past  is  assured  l>e- 
yond  peradventure.  His  future,  holding  as  it  does,  without 
doubt,  still  greater  public  honors  for  him,  can  scarcely  add 
to  those  already  won,  and  among  the  names  ever  to  be  re 
membered  by  a  grateful  country  and  an  admiring  and  ap 
preciative  people,  very  few  will  be  carved  more  deeply  upon 
the  century  than  that  of  General  John  A.  Logan. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  433 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  soldier  element  is  still  a  strong  one  in  the  political 
complexion  of  our  government,  though  twenty  years  have 
nearly  passed  since  peace  took  up  the  wand  of  progress 
where  destructive  war  had  thrown  it  down ;  yet  thousands 
of  old  veterans  are  still  above  the  sod  with  all  their  mem 
ories  undimmed,  and  their  pride  of  country  intensified  by 
the  part  they  took  in  securing  a  perpetuity  of  the  institutions 
conceived  in  the  Confederation  of  1777,  established  in  1783, 
formulated  in  the  Constitution  of  1787,  and  re-affirmed  in 
the  war  issue  of  1865.  Through  these  stages  of  battle  and 
legislation  the  boon  of  freedom  has  been  nurtured  and  now 
blossoms  so  beautifully,  fragrant  with  the  incense  of  liberty 
and  Union.  The  soldier  population,  who  followed  the  flag 
of  freedom  and  justice  through  the  last  ordeal,  are  jealous 
of  the  rights  their  valor  won  ;  they  cannot  but  remember 
the  old  issues  and  the  parties  which  then  divided  popular 
sentiment;  the  camp-fires  have  gone  out,  but  the  circum 
stances  which  lighted  them  are  a  part  of  history  as  well  as 
remembrance;  the  name  of  Logan,  therefore,  has  lost  none 
of  the  charm  which  it  possessed  at  Belmont,  Donelson, 
Vicksburg,  Atlanta,  Corinth,  Champion  Hill,  Kenesaw, 
Peach-tree  Creek,  and  a  hundred  other  places,  rendered  im 
mortal  by  terrific  battles  in  which  John  A.  Logan  won  im 
perishable  renown.  The  old  soldiers  not  only  remember  him 
leading  a  desperate  charge,  with  gleaming  sword,  streaming 
hair  and  flashing  eye,  shouting  his  electric  command,  "Come 
on,  boys;"  they  do  not  only  recall  their  brave  commander 


434  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

wounded  almost  to  the  death,  yet  heroically  keeping  his 
saddle  and  carrying  an  assault;  not  only  as  a  warrior  brave, 
manly,  generous,  but  also  as  the  statesman,  a  hero  in  debate 
as  well  as  in  battle,  a  champion  of  just  laws,  zealous,  ardent 
for  the  right  in  the  council  halls  of  his  country,  pure  in 
character  and  a  just  measurer  of  men  and  measures.  As  he 
won  promotion  for  gallant  conduct  on  the  field,  the  old  sol 
diers  declare  he  deserves  promotion  for  his  ability  in  Con 
gress.  It  was  this  voice  that  spoke  the  name  of  Logan  and 
declared  his  merits  for  the  Presidency;  from  every  State 
the  cry  was  heard,  and  everywhere  leagues  organized  to  give 
aid  in  carrying  the  hero,  soldier  and  lofty  statesman  to  that 
high  honor  which  nature  specially  fitted  him  to  adorn.  Illi 
nois  emphasized  her  preference  by  sending  an  almost  solid 
Logan  delegation  to  the  Chicago  Convention,  headed  by  that 
other  distinguished  son,  Shelby  M.  Cullom.  So  general  was 
the  demand  for  Logan  in  his  grateful  native  State,  that 
thousands  of  Democrats,  particularly  from  Southern  Illi 
nois,  joined  in  the  cry,  "  Give  us  Logan/'  thus  evidencing 
the  popular  appreciation  felt  for  his  noble  services,  by  all 
classes  in  the  State. 

In  the  national  delegate  assembling  of  June  3,  the  friends 
of  Logan  modestly  put  him  forward  for  the  Presidency, 
the  Hon.  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  at  present  Logan's  Senatorial 
colleague,  being  selected  to  present  his  name  as  the  chosen 
son  of  Illinois.  Cullom's  nominating  speech  was  forcible, 
eloquent  and  effective,  the  full  text  being  as  follows: 

4 'Mr.  President  and  gentlemen  of  the  Convention :  Twenty- 
four  years  ago  the  Second  National  Convention  of  the  Re 
publican  party  met  in  this  city  and  nominated  their  first 
successful  candidate  for  President  of  the  United  States, 
Abraham  Lincoln.  [Cheers.]  Abraham  Lincoln  led  the 
Republican  party  to  its  first  great  victory.  He  stands 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  435 

to-day  in  the  estimation  of  the  world  as  the  grandest  figure, 
the  most  majestic  figure,  of  all  modern  times.  [Applause.] 
Again,  in  1868,  another  Republican  Convention  came  to 
gether  in  this  city,  and  nominated  as  its  candidate  for 
President  of  the  United  States  another  eminent  citizen  of 
Illinois — Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant  [loud  cheers  and  waving  of 
fans  and  other  demonstrations  of  approval],  and  the  Re 
publican  party  was  again  victorious.  Still  again,  in  1880, 
the  Republican  party  turned  its  face  toward  this  political 
Mecca,  where  two  successes  had  been  organized,  and  the 
murdered  Garfield  led  the  Republican  party  to  victory. 
[Loud  and  continued  applause.] 

"Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be 
here.  There  are  omens  of  victory  in  the  air.  History  re 
peats  itself.  There  are  promises  of  triumph  to  the  Repub 
lican  party  in  holding  its  Convention  in  this  great  emporium 
of  the  Northwest.  [Applause.]  The  commonwealth  of 
Illinois,  which  has  never  wavered  in  its  adherence  to  Repub 
lican  principles  since  it  gave  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world 
the  illustrious  Lincoln,  now  presents  to  this  Convention,  for 
its  consideration,  as  the  standard-bearer  of  the  Republican 
party,  another  son  of  Illinois,  one  whose  name  will  be  recog 
nized  from  one  end  of  this  land  to  the  other  as  an  able 
statesman,  a  brilliant  soldier,  and  an  honest  man,  Gen.  John 
A.  Logan.  [The  announcement  of  Gen.  Logan's  name  was 
received  with  a  wild  burst  of  applause,  a  great  many 
persons  rising  to  their  feet,  waving  their  hats  and  handker 
chiefs,  and  the  thousands  of  people  in  the  galleries  joining 
in  the  roar  of  applause.  The  cheers  were  renewed  again 
and  again.]  A  native  of  the  State  which  he  represents  in 
the  council  of  the  nation,  reared  among  the  youth  of  a  sec 
tion  where  every  element  of  manhood  is  early  brought  into 
play,  he  is  eminently  a  man  of  the  people.  [Applause.] 
The  safety,  the  permanency  and  the  prosperity  of  the  na 
tion  depend  upon  the  courage  and  integrity  and  the  loyalty 
of  its  citizens.  When  yonder  starred  flag  was  assailed  by 
enemies  in  arms ;  when  the  integrity  of  the  Union  was  im 
perilled  by  an  organized  treason ;  when  the  storm  of  war 


43f>  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

threatened  the  very  life  of  this  nation,  this  gallant  son  of 
the  Prairie  State  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  returned  to  his  home  and  was  among  the 
first  of  our  citizens  to  raise  a  regiment  and  to  march  to  the 
front  in  defense  of  his  country.  [Applause].  Like  Doug 
las,  he  believed  that  in  time  of  war  men  must  be  either  pa 
triots  or  traitors,  and  he  threw  his  mighty  influence  on  the 
side  of  union,  and  Illinois  made  a  record  second  to  none  in 
the  history  of  the  States  in  the  struggle  to  preserve  this 
government.  [Applause].  His  history  is  the  record  of 
the  battle  of  Belmont,  of  Donelson,  of  Shiloh,  of  Vicks- 
burg,  of  Lookout  Mountain,  of  Atlanta  and  of  the  fa 
mous  march  to  the  Sea.  [Great  applause.]  He  never 
lost  a  battle.  [Applause.]  I  repeat  again,  Mr.  Chairman 
and  fellow-citizens  [applause];  when  there  was  fighting  to 
be  done,  he  did  not  wait  for  others,  nor  did  he  fail  to  obey 
orders  when  they  were  received.  His  plume,  the  white 
plume  of  Henry  of  Navarre,  was  always  to  be  seen  at  the 
point  where  the  battle  raged  the  hottest.  [Applause.]  Du 
ring  the  long  struggle  of  four  years  he  commanded,  under  the 
authority  of  the  government,  first  a  regiment,  then  a  bri 
gade,  then  a  division,  then  an  army  corps,  and  finally,  an 
army.  He  remained  in  the  service  until  the  war  closed, 
when,  at  the  head  of  his  army,  with  the  scars  of  battle  upon 
him,  he  marched  into  the  Capitol  of  the  nation,  and  with  the 
brave  men  for  whom  he  had  bled  on  a  hundred  hard  fought 
fields,  was  mustered  out  of  the  service  under  the  very  sha 
dow  of  the  Capitol  building,  which  he  had  left  four  yours 
before  as  a  member  of  Congress  to  go  and  fight  the  bat 
tles  of  his  country. 

44 When  the  war  was  over,  and  general  peace  victoriously 
returned,  he  was  again  honored  by  his  fellow-citizens  to  take 
his  place  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  In  a  service  of  twenty 
years  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  he  has  shown  himself  to  be 
no  less  able  and  distinguished  a  citizen  than  he  was  renowned 
as  a  soldier.  Conservative  in  the  advocacy  of  measures  in 
volving  the  public  welfare,  ready  and  eloquent  in  debate, 
fearless,  yes,  I  repeat  again,  fearless  in  the  defense  of  the 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  439 

rights  of  the  weak  against  the  oppressions  of  the  strong,  he 
stands  to-day,  and  I  say  it  without  disposition  to  take  one 
kiurel  from  the  brow  of  these  men  whose  names  may  be  pre 
sented  to  this  Convention,  I  say  he  stands  to-day,  in  my 
judgment,  closer  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  this 
country  than  almost  any  other  man  now  engaging  public  at 
tention.  [Applause.]  No  man  has  done  more  in  defense 
of  the  principles  which  have  given  life  and  spirit  and  victory 
to  the  Republican  party  than  has  John  A.  Logan, of  Illinois. 
[Applause.]  In  all  that  goes  to  make  up  a  brilliant  mili 
tary  and  civil  career,  and  to  commend  a  man  to  the  favor  of 
the  people,  he  whose  name  we  have  presented  here  to-night 
has  shown  himself  to  be  the  peer  of  the  best.  We  ask  you, 
therefore,  to  give  him  this  nomination,  because  it  would  not 
be  assailed,  and  it  is  not  assailable.  We  ask  you  to  nomi 
nate  him  because  his  public  record  is  so  clean  that  mere  po 
litical  calumny  dare  not  attack  it.  We  ask  you  to  nomi 
nate  him  in  behalf  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  gray 
veteran  volunteer  soldiers  who  are  to-night  over  this  broad 
land  standing  around  the  telegraph  offices,  waiting  to  know 
whether  that  gallant  leader  of  the  volunteer  soldiers  of  this 
country  is  to  receive  the  nomination  at  your  hands.  [Ap 
plause.]  We  ask  you  to  nominate  him  in  behalf  of  the 
white  and  the  colored  Republicans  of  the  South,  who  are 
here  by  the  hundred,  black  and  white,  appealing  to  this  Con 
vent  ion  as  the  representative  of  our  grand  old  party  to  give 
protection  and  to  vindicate  them  in  their  rights  in  the  South. 
[Applause.]  Now,  my  friends,  standing  in  the  midst  of 
this  vast  assemblage  of  representative  citizens  of  this  grand 
republic,  yea,  in  the  sublime  presence  of  the  people  them 
selves  represented  here  to-night  in  all  their  majesty,  we  offer 
you  the  name  of  the  tried  hero  and  patriot,  the  sagacious  and 
uncorruptible  statesman, the  man  who, though  defeated,  never 
skulked  in  his  tent.  We  offer  you  Gen.  John  A.  Logan,  and 
ask  you  to  make  him  your  nominee.  [Applause.]  If  you  do 
so,  he  will  give  you  a  glorious  victory  in  November  next, 
and  whon  he  shall  have  taken  his  position  as  President  of 
this  great  republic,  you  may  be  sure  you  will  have  an  admin- 


440  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

istration  in  the  interests  of  labor,  in  the  interest  of  com 
merce  and  in  the  interest  of  finance,  and  in  the  interest  of 
peace  at  home  and  peace  abroad,  and  in  the  interest  of  the 
prosperity  of  this  great  people.  [Applause.] 

Prentiss,  of  Missouri,  seconded  the  nomination  of  Logan, 
speaking  of  him  as  one  who  had  served  his  country  well  in 
peace  and  in  war,  and  wrho  had  stood  by  the  Republican 
party  in  all  its  perils  and  had  never  forsaken  it  at  any  time. 
The  people  of  Illinois,  wTho  loved  the  man,  asked  this  Con 
vention  to  recognize  the  services  of  the  brightest  star  in  the 
galaxy  of  Union  leaders. 

The  call  was  then  proceeded  with,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kan 
sas,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  each  being  called,  and  each  pass 
ing  as  called.  Upon  the  call  of  * 'Maine,"  by  the  clerk,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  entire  assemblage  arose,  and  a  roar  of  ap 
plause,  mingled  with  the  cries  of  "Blaine,"  commenced,  a 
scene  such  as  can  be  witnessed  only  in  a  National  Conven 
tion.  Delegates  from  California,  mounted  on  chairs,  hoist 
ed  their  white  hats  on  canes  and  waved  them  about  in 
response  to  the  ocean  of  handkerchiefs  waved  by  the  ladies 
in  the  galleries  and  on  the  platform  seats.  One  genius  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  opening  his  umbrella,  and  immediately 
fifty  umbrellas  were  up  and  being  waved  about,  present  ing 
a  novel  sight.  Meanwhile  the  immense  crowd  of  admin-is 
of  Blaine  were  shouting  in  one  immense,  never-ending  shout, 
something  like  the  roar  of  a  tempest,  now  swelling  and 
sinking.  The  band  itself  came  to  the  aid  of  the  shouters, 
and  thundered  with  its  basses  and  drums,  and,  although  five 
minutes  had  passed,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Blaineites  knew 
no  end,  and  the  roar  of  their  applause  still  continued.  At 
last  the  President,  who  had  been  looking  with  interest  upon 
the  scene  before  him,  seized  his  gavel  and  gave  some  raps 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  441 

therewith.  The  crowd  was  silent  a  moment,  and  then,  re 
gardless  of  the  Chairman's  rapping,  again  burst  out  in 
another  shout  in  honor  of  their  candidate. 

These  eloquent  appeals  produced  a  profound  impression, 
assisted  by  the  already  favorable  disposition  of  the  dele 
gates  and  spectators  towards  Logan.  But  his  friends,  upon 
perceiving  with  what  unexampled  unanimity  the  voices  of 
the  several  States  spoke  for  Elaine,  with  admirable  defference 
for  the  majority,  Logan's  name  was  not  obtruded.  When, 
therefore,  the  loud  huzzahs  for  Elaine's  nomination  had  died 
away,  and  the  Convention  was  ready  to  hoar  nominations 
for  the  Vice-Presidency,  the  name  of  Logan  was  again  pro 
posed,  and  this  time  amid  such  thunders  of  approbation  that 
there  could  be  no  mistaking  its  import  ;  every  State  became 
at  once  his  champion,  shouting  "give  us  Logan."  It  was  a 
glorious  tribute  to  the  soldier-statesman,  a  national  recogni 
tion  of  the  debt  which  all  America  owes  him.  When  the 
roll  of  States  was  called  for  nominations  for  Yice-President 
no  response  was  made  until  Illinois  was  reached,  when  Sena 
tor  Plumb  of  Kansas  came  forward.  He  said  the  Conven 
tion  had  completed  two  of  its  most  serious  duties — the 
adoption  of  a  platform  and  the  nomination  of  a  candidate 
for  President.  The  platform  was  one  on  which  all  good 
Republicans  could  unite,  and  the  candidate  was  one  who 
could  beat  any  Democrat,  living  or  dead.  Eut  it  was  still 
important  that  the  best  possible  man  should  be  named  for 
the  second  place.  It  was  but  a  matter  of  just  recognition  to 
the  great  body  of  soldiers  of  the  war  for  the  Union  that  a 
representative  of  their  number  should  be  placed  as  the 
second  name  on  the  ticket.  The  Grand  Army  of  the  Re 
public  had  enrolled  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  million 
men  who  lately  wore  the  blue.  In  presenting  a  name  from 


442  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

their  ranks,  the  speaker  would  mention  a  man  fitted  in  every 
way  for  the  first  place ;  a  man  who  would  add  strength  to  the 
ticket  and  justify  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  the  party. 
That  man  was  Gen.  John  A.  Logan.  [Loud,  long  and  re 
newed  applause.]  The  speaker  did  not  present  him  on 
behalf  of  Illinois,  or  of  any  other  State,  but  of  the  whole 
United  States.  He  belonged  no  more  to  Illinois  than  to 
Kansas,  where  75,000  soldiers  would  receive  the  news  of  his 
nomination  with  shouts  of  gladness.  The  speaker  was  com 
missioned  by  the  State  of  Kansas  to  make  this  nomination. 
[Applause.] 

Judge  Houk,  of  Tennessee,  in  seconding  the  nomination, 
said  that  while  the  Convention  had  not  chosen  his  first 
choice,  it  had  done  well,  and  the  speaker  proceeded  to  pay 
a  tribute  to  the  Plumed  Knight  of  Maine.  He  hoped  the 
Convention  would  come  to  a  common  understanding  and 
agreement  for  the  second  place  on  the  ticket.  When  the 
wires  should  transmit  the  news  of  the  nomination  of  Gen. 
Logan  to  the  soldier  boys  of  East  Tennessee  there  would  be 
rejoicing  among  them,  as  there  would  be  everywhere.  On 
the  Presidential  nominee  his  delegation  was  somewhat  di 
vided,  but  when  they  came  to  name  John  A.  Logan  they 
were  united  twenty-four  strong. 

Mr.  Thurston,  of  Nebraska,  also  seconded  the  nomination. 
He  wanted  the  Eepublican  party  to  write  upon  its  banner 
the  invincible  legend,  "  Elaine  and  Logan.''  [Applause 
and  cries  of  "Time,  time."] 

After  a  few  other  speeches  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Ohio,  moved 
to  suspend  the  rules  and  nominate  Logan  by  acclamation. 
The  motion  was  carried. 

Congressman  Davis,  of  Illinois,  demanded  that  the  roll 
be  called  on  Logan's  nomination,  and  it  was  called  accord- 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  443 

ingly.  The  idea  of  a  roll  call  met  the  approval  of  the  gal 
leries,  and  each  chairman,  as,  he  announced  the  vote  of  his 
delegation,  was  cheered  as  heartily  as  though  an  exciting 
contest  was  in  progress. 

Wisconsin  voted  nine  for  Logan  and  three  for  Lucius 
Fairchild,  the  latter  being  received  with  prolonged  hissing. 
Massachusetts  only  cast  twelve  votes,  and  G.  W.  Curtis,  on 
behalf  of  New  York,  asked  time  to  make  the  count.  The 
Wisconsin  delegation  withdrew  their  votes  for  Fairchild  and 
gave  twelve  for  Logan.  New  York  being  called  a  second 
time,  Curtis  responded  with  sixty  for  Logan,  six  for 
Gresham  and  one  for  Foraker.  Total  number  of  votes 
polled  for  Logan,  779. 

The  nomination  was  made  unanimous  this  time  amid  great 
applause. 

How  the  country  regarded  the  nomination  of  Elaine  and 
Logan  was  indicated  by  the  rejoicings  which  followed  in  all 
parts  of  the  Union,  both  North  and  South. 

Gen.  Logan  received  the  news  of  his  nomination  with  a 
sang  froid  that  amounted,  apparently,  to  indifference  tem 
pered  with  surprise,  showing  that  he  had  not  concentrated 
his  ambition  upon  the  Presidency,  but  being  content  to 
abide  the  wishes  of  his  countrymen  and  to  do  his  duty. 
A  Washington  paper  of  June  8th  reported  the  effects  of 
Logan's  nomination  upon  himself  and  family  as  follows: 

"At  10  o'clock  last  night  Gen.  Logan  sat  in  his  library, 
an  inner  second-floor  room,  at  No.  812  Twelfth  street,  con 
versing  with  a  friend  upon  the  events  of  the  day's  session  of 
the  Convention  at  Chicago.  All  the  doors  and  windows  were 
open  to  catch  the  evening  breeze,  and  the  lights  were  turned 
low,  except  at  a  desk  in  one  corner,  where  the  General's 
secretary  sat  writing.  In  the  adjoining  front  room,  Mrs. 
Logan  was  conversing  with  a  party  numbering  eight  or  ten 


444  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

ladies  and  two  or  three  gentlemen.  The  picture  was  that  of 
an  informal  evening  gathering  of  near  acquaintances,  and 
if  there  was  any  expectancy  of  an  impending  event  it  was 
successfully  concealed  by  all  the  actors  in  the  pleasant  scene. 

"A  card  was  brought  in  to  the  General  by  a  colored  waiter, 
followed  on  the  instant  by  two  or  three  perspiring  gentle 
men,  who  seized  Gen.  Logan's  hand  and  shook  it  heartily, 
offering  him  congratulations  upon  something  which  they 
were  not  given  the  opportunity  to  fully  explain.  There  was 
a  momentary  sound  of  more  excited  conversation  in  the  front 
room,  as  if  something  of  an  agreeable  nature  had  become 
known  to  the  companions  of  Mrs.  Logan,  and  that  lady 
entered  the  library  bearing  a  torn  envelope  and  its  enclosure 
in  her  hand.  'Come,  papa,  here  is  something,'  she  said, 
as  she  grasped  his  hand  to  lead  him  toward  the  light.  A 
shout  of  three  or  four  hoarse  voices  made  itself  heard  from 
the  street.  A  charming  lady,  clad  in  pure  white,  passed  Mrs. 
Logan,  and  seized  both  the  General's  hands,  beginning  an 
impressive  and  evidently  a  very  welcome  greeting.  More 
gentlemen  entered.  Louder  shouts  came  up  from  the  street. 
Somebody  proposed  three  cheers  for  something,  and  the 
result  drowned  for  a  moment  all  voices  in  the  room.  A 
sound  of  drums  approaching  from  a  distance  lent  its  help  to 
swell  the  noise. 

"  The  General's  face  at  the  first  salutation  wore  a  look  of 
something  resembling  surprise,  but  it  gave  place  to  blushes 
and  broad  smiles  as  he  was  seized  by  ladies  and  gentlemen 
and  conducted  to  the  front  window  in  response  to  the  din 
of  demand  from  the  crowded  street  below.  <  Speech ! 
speech  ! '  shouted  a  crowd  of  a  thousand  white  and  colored 
men,  in  about  equal  portions,  and  again  the  General,  now  a 
prisoner  in  the  hands  of  his  agreeable  captors,  took  up  his 
march.  Way  was  cleared  with  difficulty  through  the  hall, 
down  the  stairs  and  out  to  the  front  door,  where,  standing 
upon  the  steps  of  the  mansion,  the  General  was  cheered 
vociferously  by  his  visitors. 

"  Silence  was  secured,  and  Gen.  Logan,  in  a  voice  inaudi 
ble  to  more  than  half  the  crowd,  said  *  Friends,  I  thank 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  445 

you  for  your  cordial  meeting  to-night.     I  am  not  prepared 
to  make  a  speech.     Again  I  thank  you.     Good  night.' 

"The  General  and  Mrs.  Logan  were  conducted  back  to 
the  parlor  of  the  mansion,  and  then,  the  doors  being  thrown 
open,  the  crowds  pressed  in.  Forming  in  line,  they  decor 
ously  filed  past,  shaking  the  extended  hands  of  both  the 
General  and  his  wife.  In  half  an  hour  they  were  gone,  and 
Gen.  Logan  had  an  opportunity  to  read  the  paper  which 
Mrs.  Logan  had  brought  him  as  the  scene  began.  It  proved 
to  be  an  Associated  Press  bulletin,  announcing  his  nomina 
tion  by  acclamation  for  the  Vice-Presidency." 


446  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

On  the  24th  of  June,  the  committee  appointed  to  officially 
notify  Elaine  and  Logan  of  their  respective  nominations, 
arrived  in  Washington,  having  gone  direct  from  Augusta, 
where  they  had  met  Mr.  Blaine,  and  at  noon  proceeded  to 
the  residence  of  Gen.  Logan,  where  they  were  ushered  into 
a  large  parlor.  The  General  stood  in  the  middle  of  the 
room  with  Mrs.  Logan  at  his  right  hand,  and  was  intro 
duced  to  the  members  of  the  committee  by  the  Chairman. 
When  this  ceremony  was  performed,  the  company  arranged 
themselves  in  a  circle  around  the  room  to  hear  the  address. 
Chairman  Henderson  then  read  the  formal  notification  of 
the  nomination  of  Senator  Logan  as  Vice-President. 

Gen.  Logan  replied  to  the  Chairman's  address  as  follows: 
"Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee:  I  re 
ceive  your  visit  with  pleasure,  and  accept  with  gratitude 
the  sentiments  you  have  so  generously  expressed  in  the  dis 
charge  of  the  duty  with  which  you  have  been  intrusted  by 
the  National  Convention.  Intending  to  address  you  a  for 
mal  communication  shortly,  in  accordance  with  the  recog 
nized  usage,  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  detain  you  at  this 
time  with  remarks  which  properly  belong  to  the  official  ut 
terances  of  my  letter  of  acceptance.  I  may  he  permitted 
to  say,  however,  that  though  I  did  not  seek  the  nomination 
for  Vice-President,  I  accept  it  as  a  trust  reposed  in  me 
by  the  Republican  party,  to  the  advancement  of  whose  broad 
policy  on  all  questions  connected  with  the  progress  of  our 
government  and  our  people,  I  have  dedicated  my  best  en 
ergies,  and  with  this  acceptance  I  may  properly  signify  my 
approval  of  the  platform  and  principles  adopted  by  the 
Convention.  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  the  honor  conferred 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  447 

on  me  by  my  friends  in  so  unanimous  a  manner  tendering 
me  this  nomination,  and  I  sincerely  thank  them  for  this 
tribute.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  great  responsibility 
attaching  to  the  office,  and  if  elected,  I  shall  enter  upon  the 
performance  of  its  duties  with  a  firm  conviction  that  he 
who  has  such  unanimous  support  of  his  party  friends,  as 
the  circumstances  connected  with  the  nomination  and  your 
own  words,  Mr.  Chairman,  indicated,  and  consequently 
with  such  a  wealth  of  counsel  to  draw  upon,  can  not  fail 
in  the  proper  way  to  discharge  the  duties  devolving  upon 
him.  I  tender  you  my  thanks,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the 
kind  expressions  you  have  made,  and  I  offer  you  and  your 
fellow-committeemen  my  most  hearty  thanks." 

When  Gen.  Logan  had  concluded,  the  Chairman  stepped 
forward  and  shook  him  by  the  hand,  as  did  other  members 
of  the  committee,  and  mutual  congratulations  were  ex 
changed.  Mrs.  Logan  warmly  thanked  Gen.  Henderson  for 
the  sentiments  conveyed  in  his  address. 

On  the  evening  of  June  21st  the  soldiers  and  sailors  re 
sident  in  Washington,  paid  their  tribute  to  Gen.  Logan,  as 
their  choice  for  Vice-President,  by  tendering  him  a  serenade. 

They  assembled  at  the  City  Hall  and,  forming  in  platoons 
of  twelve,  marched,  headed  by  the  Marine  Band,  to  the  Gen 
eral's  residence  on  Twelfth  street,  where  a  crowd  of  2,000 
or  3,000  citizens  had  already  assembled.  The  procession  was 
liberally  supplied  with  banners,  rockets,  Roman  candles  and 
noise-making  devices.  The  banner  of  the  Army  of  the  Ten 
nessee  was  displayed  from  an  upper  window  of  Gen.  Logan's 
house.  Gen.  Logan's  appearance  was  greeted  with  a  storm 
of  cheers.  When  the  applause  subsided  he  was  introduced 
in  a  brief  speech  by  Gen.  Green  B.  Raum. 

Gen.  Logan  then  addressed  the  assemblage  as  follows: 

"Comrades  and  fellow-citizens:  The  warm  expressions 
of  confidence  and  congratulations  which  you  offer  me, through 


448  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

your  Chairman,  impress  mo  with  a  deep  sense  of  gratitude. 
I  beg  to  tender  my  sinccrest  thanks  to  one  and  all  my  par 
ticipating  friends  for  this  demonstration  of  kindness  and 
esteem.  Your  visit  at  this  time,  gentlemen,  is  interesting 
to  me  in  a  double  aspect.  As  citizens  of  our  common  coun 
try,  tendering  a  tribute  to  me  as  a  public  man,  I  meet  you 
with  genuine  pleasure  and  grateful  acknowledgment.  Com 
ing,  however,  as  you  do,  in  the  character  of  representatives 
of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  our  country,  your  visit  pos 
sesses  a  feature  insensibly  leading  to  a  train  of  most  inter 
esting  reflections.  [Applause.]  Your  assemblage  is  com 
posed  of  men  who  gave  up  the  pursuits  of  peace,  relinquished 
comforts  of  home,  severed  the  ties  of  friendship,  and  yielded 
the  gentle  and  loving  society  of  father,  mother,  sister, 
brother,  and  in  many  instances  wife  and  little  ones,  to  brave 
the  dangers  of  the  tented  field  or  crested  wave,  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  sickness  in  climates  different  from  your  own,  and 
possibly,  or  even  probably,  to  yield  up  life  itself  in  the  ser 
vice  of  your  country. 

4 'Twenty-three  years  ago,  gentlemen,  when  dread  war 
raised  its  wrinkled  front  throughout  the  land,  many  of  you 
were  standing  with  one  foot  upon  the  portal  of  manhood, 
eager  for  the  conflict  with  the  world,  which  promised  to 
bring  you  honors,  riches  and  friends,  and  a  life  of  peace  and 
ease  in  the  society  of  your  own  families.  But  few  of  you 
had  passed  the  period  of  young  manhood  or  advanced  to  the 
opening  score  of  middle  life.  At  the  call,  however,  of  your 
endangered  country,  you  did  not  hesitate  to  leave  everything 
for  which  we  strive  in  this  world,  to  become  defenders  of  the 
Union,  without  the  incentive  which  has  inspired  men  of 
other  nations  to  adopt  a  military  career  as  a  permanent  occu 
pation  and  as  an  outlet  to  ambition  and  an  ascent  to  power. 
[Cheers.] 

"The  safety  of  our  country  having  been  assured  and  its 
territorial  integrity  preserved,  you  sheathed  the  sword,  un 
fixed  the  bayonet,  layed  away  the  musket,  housed  the  can 
non,  doffed  your  uniforms,  donned  the  gaimcnts  of  civil 
life,  buried  the  hatred  toward  our  brothers  of  the  South 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  449 

nd  shook  hands  in  testimony  of  a  mutual  resolve  to  re- 
abilitate  waste  places  and  cultivate. the  arts  of  peace  until 
ur  reunited  country  should  be  greeted  prouder  and  grander 
mn  ever  before.   [Great  cheers.]     Those  years  have  glided 
ito  the  retroacting  perspective  of  the  past  since  you  re- 
oonded  to  your  country's  call,  and  mighty  changes  in  the 
jventful  march  of  nations  have  taken  place.     This  passing 
ime  has  laid  its  gentle  lines  upon  the  heads  of  many  of  you 
ho  shouldered  your  muskets  before  your  first  beard  was 
rown.     But   however   lightly  or  however  heavily  it  has 
lealt  with  you,  your  soldiers'  and  sailors'  organizations  that 
ihave  been  kept  up  prove  that  the  heart  has  been  untouched 
and  that  your  love  of  country  has  but  been  intensified  with 
advancing  years.   [Cheers.]     Your  arms  have  been  as  strong 
and  your  voices  as  clear  in  the  promotion  of  peace,  as  when 
lent  to  the  science  of  war,  and  the  interest  which  you  take 
in  national  affairs  proves  that  you  are  patriotically  deter 
mined  to  maintain  what  you  fought  for,  and  that  which  our 
'lost  comrades  gave  up  their  lives  to  secure  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  survived  them.     [Applause  long  continued.] 
"During  the  last  twenty  years,  in  which  we  have  been 
blessed  with  peace,  the  Republican  party  has  been  continued 
in  the  administration  of  the  government.     When  the  great 
question  of  preserving  or  giving  up  the  union  of  States  was 
presented  to  us,  it  was  the  Republican  party  which  affirmed 
its  perpetuation.     I  open  no  wounds,  nor  do  I  resurreet  any 
bad  memories  in  stating  this  as  an  undeniable  fact.     When 
you   and  I,  my  friends,  and  that  vast  body  of  men,  who, 
having  declared  in  favor  of  preserving  the  Union,  were 
compelled  to  resort  to  the  last  dread  measure,  the  arbitra 
ment  of  war,  we  did  so  under  the  call  of  the  Republican 
party.     Many  of  us  had  been  educated  by  our  fathers  in  the 
Democratic  school  of  politics,  and  many  of  us  were  acting 
with  that  party  at  the  time  the  issue  of  war  was  presented 
to  us.     For  years  the   Democratic  party  had  wielded  the 
destinies  of  our  government  and  had  served   its  purpose 
under  the  narrower  views  of  an  ideal  republic,  which  then 
existed.     But  the  matrix  of  time  has  developed  a  new  child 


450  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

of  progress,  which  saw  the  light  of  day  under  the  name  of 
the  Republican  party.  Its  birth  announced  the  conception 
of  a  higher,  broader  principle  of  human  government  than 
had  been  entertained  by  our  forefathers.  But  few  of  us, 
perhaps  none,  took  in  the  full  dimensions  of  the  coming 
fact  at  that  early  day.  It  broke  upon  us  gradually,  like 
the  morning  sun  as  he  rises  in  the  misty  dawn  above  the 
mountain  top.  At  length  it  came  in  full  blaze,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  our  republic  we  began  to  give 
genuine  vitality  to  the  declaration  of  1770  that  4AU  men 
are  created  equal/  and  entitled  to  the  inalienable  rights  of 
life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  [Cheers.]  The 
Republican  party  was  the  unquestionable  agency  which  bore 
these  rights  to  a  waiting  age,  and  it  was  the  Democratic 
idea  which  disputed  their  value — first,  upon  the  field  of  bat 
tle;  and  subsequently,  and  up  to  this  moment,  at  the  polling 
places  of  the  country. 

"  The  Republican  party,  then,  represents  the  latest  fru 
ition  of  governmental  progress,  and  is  destined  to  survive 
upon  the  theory  that  the  strong  outlive  the  weak,  until  the 
development  of  principles  still  more  advanced  shall  com 
pel  it  to  measure  its  step  with  the  march  of  the  age  or  go 
to  the  wall  as  an  instrument  which  has  fulfilled  its  destiny. 
So  long  as  the  Democratic  party  shall  cling,  either  in  an 
open  or  covert  manner,  to  the  traditions  belonging  to  an 
expired  era  of  our  development,  just  so  long  will  the  Re 
publican  party  be  charged  with  the  administration  of  our 
government. 

"  In  makingthis  arraignment  of  the  Democracy,  my  friends, 
I  appeal  to  no  passions,  nor  re-open  settled  questions.  I  but 
utter  the  calm,  sober  words  of  truth.  I  say  that  until  every 
State  in  this  broad  and  beneficent  Union  shall  give  free  rec 
ognition  to  the  civil  and  political  rights  of  the  humblest 
of  its  citizens,  whatever  his  color;  until  protection  to  Amer 
ican  citizens  follows  the  flag  at  home  and  abroad  ;  until  the 
admirable  monetary  system  established  by  the  Republican 
party  shall  be  placed  beyond  the  danger  of  subversion; 
until  American  labor  and  industry  shall  be  protected  by 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  451 

vise  and  equitable  laws,  so  as  to  give  full  scope  to  our 
inincnse  resources  and  place  every  man  upon  the  plane  to 
which  he  is  entitled  by  reason  of  his  capacity  and  worth 
[cheers]  ;  until  education  shall  be  as  general  as  our  civili 
zation;  until  we  shall  have  established  a  wise  American 
policy,  that  will  not  only  preserve  peace  with  other  na 
tions,  but  will  cause  every  American  citizen  to  honor  his 
government  at  home,  and  every  civilized  nation  to  respect 
our  flag  [renewed  cheering]  ;  until  American  people  shall 
permanently  establish  a  thoroughly  economic  system  upon 
an  American  ideal,  which  will  preserve  and  foster  their  own 
interests,  uninfluenced  by  English  theories  or  « Cobden 
Club,'  and  until  it  is  conceded  beyond  subsequent  revo 
cation  that  this  government  exists  upon  the  basis  of  a 
self-sustaining,  self -preserving  nation,  and  the  fatal  doc 
trine  of  '  independent  State  sovereignty,'  upon  which  the 
civil  war  was  founded,  shall  be  stamped  as  a  political  heresy, 
out  of  which  continued  revolution  is  born,  and  wholly  in 
compatible  with  that  idea  of  a  republic. 

"The  Eepublican  party  will  have  much  work  to  do,  and 
an  unfulfilled  mission  to  perform.  [At  this  point  the 
speaker  was  interrupted  some  time  by  cheers  and  applause.] 
The  standard-bearer  of  the  party  in  the  ensuing  campaign  is 
Hon.  James  G.  Blaine  [great cheering],  known  throughout 
the  land  as  one  of  its  truest  and  ablest  representatives.  He 
has  been  called  to  this  position  by  the  voice  of  the  people, 
in  recognition  of  his  especial  fitness  for  the  trust,  and  in 
admiration  of  the  surprising  combination  of  brilliancy, 
courage,  faithfulness,  persistency  and  research  that  has 
made  him  one  of  the  most  remarkable  figures  which  have 
appeared  upon  the  forum  of  state  craft  in  any  period  of 
this  country ;  that  such  a  man  should  have  enemies  and  de 
tractors  is  as  natural  as  that  our  best  fruits  should  be  in 
fested  with  parasites,  or  that  there  should  exist  small  and 
envious  minds  which  seek  to  belittle  that  which  they  can 
never  hope  to  imitate  or  equal,  but  that  he  shall  triumph 
over  these  and  lead  Republican  hearts  to  another  victory  in 
November  is  as  certain  as  the  succession  of  seasons  or  the 


452  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

rolling  of  the  spheres  in  their  courses.  Gentlemen,  again 
thank  you  for  this  visit  of  congratulation,  and  extend  tx 
you,  one  and  all,  my  grateful  acknowledgment.  [Cheers.]* 
Speech-making  continued  to  a  late  hour.  Among  thi 
speakers,  who  were  all  ex-soldiers,  were  Senators  Plumb  an( 
Harrison,  Gen.  Cutcheon,  of  Michigan,  Gen.  Nathan  Goff 
of  West  Virginia,  Hon.  A.  II.  Pettibone,  of  Tennessee,  an< 
Gen.  T.  M.  Bayne,  of  Pennsylvania.  This  graceful  tributi 
to  Gen.  Logan  was  the  voice  of  not  only  the  soldier  an< 
sailor  residents  of  Washington,  but  it  was  representative  o 
all  the  veterans  of  the  nation,  whose  hearts  well  up  when 
ever  Logan's  name  is  spoken;  who  listen  again  to  the  bugl< 
note  sounding  the  charge,  and  see  again  Logan's  magnifi 
cent  figure  leading  a  sweeping  column  through  battle-smok 
and  deafening  musketry;  through  deadly  fire,  up  to  flanrinj 
parapets,  planting  a  shattered  emblem  on  the  blazing  walls 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN,  453 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Since  writing  the  last  chapter,  news  has  been  re 
ceived  that  President  Arthur,  after  a  careful  examination  of 
he  bill  which  passed  Congress  in  June,  for  the  relief  of 
Fitz  John  Porter,  has  returned  it  with  his  veto.  The  im 
portance  of  this  act  is  so  great,  particularly  affecting  the 
haracter  of  Gen.  Logan,  that  an  omission  of  the  President's 
veto  message  from  this  work  would  seriously  mar  its  com- 
leteness.  The  manner  in  which  Gen.  Logan  resisted  this 

l,  using  his  powerful  arguments  in  a  five  days'  speech  on 
its  injustice,  was  used  as  a  pretext  by  his  enemies  for 
charging  him  with  bigotry  and  jealousy.  This  same  charge 
will  no  doubt  be  circulated  in  the  campaign,  but  it  is  hap 
pily  anticipated  by  the  action  of  President  Arthur,  who  did 
not  pass  upon  the  merits  of  the  relief  bill  until  he  had 
thoroughly  exhausted  every  question  which  was  raised  in 
support  of  or  opposition  to  it.  At  the  request  of  the  Pres 
ident,  Attorney-General  Brevvster  submitted,  July  2d,  a 
long  and  carefully  prepared  opinion  on  the  constitutionality 
of  the  bill,  the  import  of  which  is  expressed  in  the  following 
excerpt : 

"  Whatever  powers  Congress  has  upon  the  subject  of  ap 
pointments  in  the  army  must  be  derived  from  some  one  or 
more  of  the  following  clauses  of  the  Constitution : 

"  'The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  declare  war/  etc. 

"  *  To  raise  and  support  armies,'  etc. 

"' To  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of 
land  and  naval  forces.' 

'"To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,'  etc. 
[Section  8,  Article  1.] 


454  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

"But  another  clause  of  the  Constitution  declares  that  th 
President  *  Shall  nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  advice  an 
consent  of  the  Senate,  appoint  Embassadors  *  *  *  an 
all  other  officers  of  the  United  States,  whose  appointment 
are  not  herein  otherwise  provided  for,  and  which  shall  b 
established  by  law,'  etc.  [Section  2,  Article  1.] 

*'  This  is  power  expressly  given  to  the  President  by  th 
same  instrument  which  gives  Congress  the  power  abov 
mentioned,  namely,  to  make  rules  for  the  government  an 
regulation  of  the  land  forces,  etc.  From  the  foregoin 
powers  conferred  upon  Congress  the  power  to  designate  b 
law  a  person  to  fill  a  military  office  can  not  be  implied,  sine 
this  would  be  in  direct  conflict  with  the  power  of  appoint 
ment  expressly  given  to  the  President,  as  above.  Began 
ing  the  bill  as  imposing,  or  attempting  to  impose,  upon  th 
President  a  duty  to  appoint  the  person  designated  therein 
it  is  without  any  support  in  the  Constitution.  It  is  an  as 
sumption  of  implied  power,  which  is  not  based  upon  an; 
express  powers,  and  clearly  involves  the  constitutional  right 
of  the  President.  Congress  has  no  right  to  enact  as  a  lai 
that  which  will  be  ineffectual.  It  cannot  enact,  advise  c 
counsel.  It  must  make  laws  that  are  rules  of  action,  nc 
expressions  of  will,  that  may  or  may  not  be  followed 
Counsel  is  a  matter  of  persuasion,  law  is  a  matter  of  injunc 
tion;  counsel  acts  upon  the  willing,  law  upon  the  unwillin 
also.  (Blackstone's  Commentaries,  44.)  If,  then,  thi 
bill  be  an  injunction  commanding  the  President  to  appoint 
it  is  an  usurpation,  and  if  it  only  be  counsel,  it  is  wit  hot; 
essential  element  of  law,  and  Congress  can  enact  nothin 
but  that  which  is  to  have  the  full  vigor  and  effect  of  th 
law.  But  again,  the  bill  is  subject  to  objection  upon  th 
ground  that  Congress  thereby  in  effect  creates  an  office  onl 
upon  condition  that  it  is  to  be  filled  by  the  particular  ir 
dividual  named.  If  this  principle  were  adopted  gcnerall 
in  the  creation  of  offices,  it  would  obviously  result  in  cor 
straining  the  appointing  power  to  accept  the  conditio 
imposed,  and  fill  offices  with  individuals  designated  by  Cor 
gress,  thus  frustrating  the  design  of  the  Constitution,  whic 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  455 

is  that  officers  must  be  alone  selected  according  to  the  judg 
ment  and  will  of  the  person  and  body  in  whom  the  power  of 
nomination,  advice  and  consent  and  appointment  are  vested." 

The  President  took  the  same  view  of  the  bill  as  Attorney- 
General  Brewster,  and  on  the  same  day  returned  it  to  Con 
gress  with  a  lengthy  expression  of  his  reasons  for  vetoing 
it;  among  other  objections  named,  the  President  conclud 
ed  his  message  as  follows : 

"There  are  other  causes  that  deter  me  from  giving  this 
bill  the  sanction  of  my  approval.  The  judgment  of  the 
court-martial  by  which  more  than  twenty  years  ago  Gen. 
Fitz  John  Porter  was  tried,  was  convicted,  was  pronounced  by 
a  tribunal  composed  of  nine  general  officers  of  distinguished 
character  and  ability.  Its  investigation  of  the  charges  of 
which  it  found  the  accused  guilty  was  thorough  and  con 
scientious,  and  its  findings  and  sentence  in  due  course  of 
law  were  approved  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  President  of 
the  United  States.  Its  legal  competency,  its  jurisdiction  of 
the  accused  and  of  the  subjects  of  accusation,  the  substan 
tial  regularity  of  all  its  proceedings,  are  matters  which  have 
never  been  brought  in  question.  Its  judgment,  therefore,  is 
final  and  conclusive  in  its  character.  The  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  has  recently  declared  that  such  court- 
martial,  such  as  this  was,  is  the  organism  provided  by  law 
and  clothed  with  the  duty  of  administering  justice  in  this 
class  of  cases.  Its  judgments,  when  approved,  rest  on  the 
same  basis  and  are  surrounded  by  the  same  considerations 
which  attach  to  the  judgments  of  other  tribunals,  as  well 
the  lowest  as  the  highest.  It  follows,  accordingly,  that 
when  the  lawfully  constituted  court-martial  has  duly  de 
clared  its  findings  and  its  sentence,  and  the  same  has  been 
duly  approved,  neither  the  President  nor  Congress  has  any 
power  to  set  them  aside.  The  existence  of  such  power  is 
not  openly  asserted,  nor,  perhaps,  is  it  necessarily  implied, 
in  the  provisions  of  the  bill  which  is  before  me,  but  when  its 
enacting  clauses  are  read  in  the  light  of  the  recitals  of  its 
preamble,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  seeks  in  effect  the  political 


456  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

annulment  of  the  findings  and  sentence  of  a  competent  court- 
martial.  A  conclusion  at  variance  with  these  findings  has 
been  reached  after  investigation  by  a  board  consisting  of 
officers  of  the  army.  This  board  was  not  created  in  the 
purpose  of  any  statutory  authority,  and  was  powerless  to 
compel  the  attendance  of  a  witness  or  to  pronounce  a  judg 
ment  which  could  be  lawfully  enforced. 

11  The  officers  who  composed  it,  in  their  report  to  the 
Secretary  of  War,  dated  March  19,  1879,  state  that  in  theii 
opinion  justice  requires  such  action  as  may  be  necessary  tc 
annul  and  set  aside  the  findings  and  sentence  of  the  court- 
martial  in  the  case  of  Maj.-Gen.  Fitz  John  Porter,  and  tc 
restore  him  to  the  position  which  their  sentence  deprived 
him,  such  restoration  to  take  effect  from  the  date  of  his  dis 
missal  from  the  service.  The  provisions  of  the  bill  no^ 
under  consideration  are  avowedly  based  on  the  assumptior 
that  the  findings  of  the  court-martial  have  been  discoverec 
to  be  erroneous.  But  it  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  in 
vestigation  which  is  claimed  to  have  resulted  in  the  discov 
ery  was  made  many  years  after  the  event  to  which  these 
findings  relate,  and  under  circumstances  that  made  it  impos 
sible  to  reproduce  the  evidence  upon  which  they  were  based 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  proposed  legislation  would  establisl 
a  dangerous  precedent,  calculated  to  impair  in  no  smal 
measure  the  binding  force  and  effect  of  judgments  o1 
various  tribunals  established  under  our  Constitution  anc 
laws.  I  have  already,  in  the  exercise  of  the  pardoninl 
power  with  which  the  President  is  vested,  remitted  the  con 
tinuing  penalty  that  made  it  impossible  for  Fitz  John  Portei 
to  hold  an  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  government  o; 
the  United  States.  But  I  am  unwilling  to  give  my  sanctioi 
to  any  legislation  which  shall  practically  annul  and  set  a 
naught  the  solemn  and  deliberate  conclusions  of  the  tribii 
nal  by  which  he  was  convicted,  and  of  the  President  bj 
whom  its  findings  were  examined  and  approved. 

"( Signed)  CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR. 

"Executive  Mansion,  July  2,  1884." 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  457 

Gen.  Logan  has  already  given  satisfactory  reasons  for 
the  opposition  which  he  offered  to  the  bill ;  he  did  not  op 
pose  it  merely  to  gratify  personal  spleen,  because  he  har 
bored  no  enmity  towards  Fitz  John  Porter;  he  did  not 
ioppose  it  either  with  the  purpose  of  obtruding  himself  more 
Iprominently  upon  the  public,  for  he  was  well  aware  that 
Porter  had  many  friends,  some  of  whom  were  Republicans, 
while  all  the  Democrats  in  Congress  were  favorable  to  the 
bill,  and  consequently  his  opposition  would  only  invite  their 
active  enmity,  which  it  has  done.  Thus  was  his  position 
a  most  unenviable  one ;  but,  so  far  as  his  action  promised 
hostility  or  loss  of  popularity,  Logan  did  not  give  the  mat 
ter  a  thought ;  he  has  been  in  so  many  throes  of  political 
and  deadly  conflict  that  no  affray  can  deter  his  progress ; 
iand  being  convinced  in  his  own  mind  that  the  court-martial 
which  convicted  Fitz  John  Porter,  made  their  findings 
iaccording  to  evidence  and  fact,  he  considered  that  a  re- 
jversal  of  the  verdict  so  formed  would  be  an  act  of  rank 
[injustice  to  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  he  therefore 
conscientiously  opposed  the  bill  giving  Porter  relief.  The 
President's  veto  has  shown  the  correctness  of  Gen.  Logan's 
position  and  added  another  victory  to  his  long  list  of  tri 
umphs. 


458  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  domestic  life  of  Gen.  Logan,  like  that  of  Mr.  Blaine 
is  a  very  happy  one ;  a  continual  spring-time  of  confident 
and  devotion.  Gen.  Logan  was  married  in  1855,  to  Miss 
Mary  Cunningham,  of  Shawneetown,  Illinois,  under  some 
what  romantic  circumstances.  Among  the  comrades  oi 
Logan,  who  went  with  him  to  the  Mexican  war,  was  Mr. 
Cunningham,  who  had  moved  from  Kentucky  and  settled  at 
Marion,  only  a  short  time  before  war  was  declared  with 
Mexico.  It  chanced  that  Logan  and  Cunningham,  in  the 
assignment  of  the  Illinois  volunteers,  were  mustered  into 
the  same  company,  and  in  this  comradeship  they  served  until 
peace  was  declared.  Logan  returned  home  and  entered 
upon  the  study  of  law,  as  already  related,  while  Cunning 
ham  joined  his  family  at  Marion,  but  did  not  remain  there 
more  than  two  years.  Finding  no  inviting  opportunity  to 
engage  in  business  at  Marion,  he  removed  from  there  to 
Shawneetown. 

Upon  Logan's  election  to  the  position  of  Prosecuting 
Attorney,  he  visited  Shawneetown  in  the  performance  of 
his  official  duties  in  1854,  and  while  there  met  Mr.  Cunning 
ham,  for  the  first  time  in  three  years.  The  meeting  was,  of 
course,  a  happy  one,  and  Logan  was  invited  to  spend  an 
evening  with  his  old  comrade,  which  he  gladly  accepted. 
Up  to  this  time  Logan  had  never  met  any  of  the  members 
of  Mr.  Cunningham's  family,  and  he  was  therefore  pro 
foundly,  but  agreeably,  surprised  upon  entering  his  friend's 
house,  to  meet,  among  others  of  the  family,  a  daughter  just 
turning  twenty  years,  and  of  surpassing  beauty.  This  was 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  459 

Mary  Cunningham,  the  brightest  girl  and  acknowledged  belle 
of  Shawneetown,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  her  father 
was  quite  poor.  It  is  not  because  of  her  present  position, 
but  because  the  fact  may  yet  be  amply  attested  by  old  citi 
zens  of  Shawneetown,  that  I  here  declare  Mary  Cunning 
ham  to  have  been  one  of  the  handsomest  girls  in  Illinois, 
and  with  her  beauty  she  had  also  a  marvellous  intelligence, 
winning  and  graceful  manners,  and  all  the  natural  qualifica 
tions  to  make  her  a  charming  girl  and  a  noble  woman.  Her 
advantages  for  obtaining  an  education  were  limited  to  the 
indifferent  opportunities  of  Southern  Illinois,  which  have 
already  been  described,  but  she  had  natural  abilities  far 
above  those  which  may  be  acquired  in  the  seminaries  of 
learning. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  beautiful  face  and  delightful 
manners  of  Mary  Cunningham  should  excite  a  tender  pas 
sion  in  the  bosom  of  so  sensitive  and  mobile  a  young  lawyer 
as  Logan  was  then.  In  fact,  it  may  be  briefly  stated  that 
Logan  had  most  unexpectedly  found  what  he  at  once  con 
ceived  to  be  his  affinity,  and  started  upon  another  highway 
of  life  more  rose-bowered  and  flower-carpeted  than  any  he 
had  yet  trod. 

No  more  surprising  is  it  that  the  readily  impressionable 
and  beautiful  Mary  should  be  attracted  by  the  handsome, 
chivalrous  lawyer,  whoser  eputation  as  an  attorney,  and  prom 
ise  of  future  advancement,  was  on  every  one's  tongue  in 
Southern  Illinois.  So  it  may  with  truth  be  said  that  the 
two  conceived  a  strong  attachment  for  each  other,  which 
was  not  long  ripening  into  a  love  which  found  consumma 
tion  in  the  marriage  that  followed  less  than  one  year  after 
their  first  meeting.  Directly  after  this  happy  event,  Logan 
removed  with  his  beautiful  bride  to  Benton,  Illinois,  where 


460  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

he  resided  for  some  time,  and  then  changed  his  residence 
to  Carbondale,  where  he  continued  to  live  until  his  removal 
to  Chicago  in  1871. 

In  all  his  struggles  and  triumphs  Gen.  Logan  has  found 
a  true  help-meet,  a  devoted  assistant,  in  his  wife.  At  the 
breaking  out  of  hostilities,  in  1861,  Mrs.  Logan's  kinsmen,  as 
well  as  those  of  her  husband's,  were  all  strong  Southern 
sympathizers,  Mr.  Cunningham,  her  father,  being  especially 
outspoken  in  his  sentiments  against  Lincoln  and  the  threat 
ened  coercion  of  his  administration.  In  this  condition  of 
Southern  Illinois  feeling,  which  threatened  for  a  time  a  seces 
sion  of  that  section,  a  gentleman,  who  was  an  old  acquaint 
ance  of  Logan's,  asked  Mrs.  Logan  what  she  thought  would 
be  her  husband's  attitude  in  the  approaching  struggle.  Her 
answer  was  quick  and  decided:  "What  will  be  his  attitude? 
Why,  sir,  he  will  sustain  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  will  uphold  the 
Union.  Has  he  not  already  declared  what  course  he  will 
take?" 

The  gentleman  was  very  much  attached  to  the  Southern 
cause,  and  as  he  had  long  known  Logan  to  be  an  uncom 
promising  Democrat,  with  all  his  relatives  still  holding  alle 
giance  to  that  party,  he  doubted  Mrs.  Logan's  declarations. 

Said  he:  "Here  is  a  span  of  horses  and  a  carriage  which 
is  worth  six  hundred  dollars  ;  I  will  wager  the  outfit  against 
that  sum  of  money,  if  you  can  find  some  one  to  take  the 
bet,  that  John  A.  Logan  stands  by  his  old  party  and  will 
give  his  influence  towards  the  South  in  the  pendingtrouble." 

Mrs.  Logan  responded  to  this  banter  by  saying,  "You  need 
not  look  further,  I  will  take  the  bet,"  and  going  into  the 
house  she  soon  returned  with  six  hundred  dollars,  which  were 
taken  to  the  bank,  and  there  the  wager  was  completed  in 
proper  form.  Less  than  one  month  afterward,  John  A.  Logan 


MRS.  JOHN  A  LOGAN. 
(From  a  photograph  taken  and  engraved  expressly  for  this  work.) 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  463 

iad  enlisted  as  a  private  under  Col.  Richardson,  in  a  Michi 
gan  regiment,  and  started  to  the  front. 

Upon  receiving   the   news  of   Logan's   enlistment,  duly 

uthenticated,  the  gentleman   turned  over  his  horses  and 

carriage  to  Mrs.  Logan,  and  in  the  fall  he  was  converted  to 

:he  Union  cause  by  one  of  Logan's  stirring  speeches,  deliv- 

sred  in  his  town,  Carbondale. 

This  incident  serves  the  double  purpose  of  illustrating  the 
nfluences  which  Logan  was  forced  to  combat  in  taking  issue 
against.  Democracy,  and  also  the  faith  and  confidence  which 
VTrs.  Logan  had  in  her  husband's  loyalty. 

Mrs.  Logan  has  always  proved  herself  equal  to  every 
ccasion  in  which  her  valuable  services  might  be  of  aid  to 
her  husband.  While  he  was  in  the  field  leading  victorious 
barges,  Mrs.  Logan  was  at  home  cheering  him  with  daily 
etters,  and  defending  him  against  the  calumny  of  enemies. 
When  he  was  brought  to  her  at  Murphysboro  with  a  des 
perate  wound,  which  threatened  his  life,  she  responded  with 
promptness  as  nurse  ;  watched  day  by  day  at  his  bedside, 
and  so  ministered  as  only  a  loving  wife  can,  until  the  hectic 
flush  disappeared  and  returning  strength  gradually  told  the 
glad  news  of  his  recovery.  With  all  her  great  wealth  of 
love  she  could  have  given  him  to  her  country;  with  all  her 
devotion  she  could  have  knelt  upon  and  watered  with  her 
tears  a  green  mound  marking  his  last  repose,  sustained  in 
the  hour  of  most  grievous  affliction  by  the  cause  in  which  he 
fell.  Hers  was  a  patriotism  like  that  which  wrought  our 
independence  one  hundred  years  ago,  a  glorious  example  of 
woman's  heroism,  which  is  the  refreshing  shower  that  bright 
ens  and  nourishes  the  plant  of  universal  liberty. 

When  Gen.  Logan  was  called  to  a  high  position  in  our 
civil  government,  Mrs.  Logan  became  at  once,  by  reason  of 


464  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

her  refinement  and  intellectual  abilities,  the  cynosure  of  ai 
miring  eyes,  a  charm  in  the  social  circle  to  which  she  hi 
been  elevated.  Being  a  lady  schooled  in  all  the  depar 
mentsof  society,  she  could  adapt  herself  readily  to  any  vvhk 
changed  conditions  might  demand;  therefore,  from  the  snu| 
polish  of  Southern  Illinois,  she  could,  at  a  moment,  gra< 
the  most  elegant  circles  of  fashionable  refinement  in  Wa 
ington. 

There  is  no  woman  in  public  life  who  possesses  more  ac 
mirable  traits  than  Mrs.  Logan,  and,  what  is  very  unusua 
her  popularity  with  members  of  her  own  sex  is  quite  as  grei 
as  with  the  others,  clearly  evidencing  her  personal  magne 
ism  and  brilliant  social  accomplishments. 

Gen.  Logan's  family  is  the  fruition  of  a  happy  marriag 
and  delightful  domestic  life;  he  has  but  two  childrei 
one  of  whom  is  the  young  wife  of  Paymaster  Tucker,  sti 
tioned  at  Santa  Fe,  N.  M. ,  and  the  other,  a  son,  Manning,  wfc 
is  now,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  a  cadet  at  West  Point  Mil 
tary  school.  Mrs.  Tucker  is  universally  regarded  as  havir 
been  one  of  the  sweetest  dispositioned  girls  that  was  ev< 
in  Washington  society  ;  she  exhibits  many  of  the  attractn 
characteristics  of  Mrs.  Logan,  being  very  interesting  in  coi 
versation,  and  having  such  winsome  manners  that  she  is 
favorite  with  all  who  have  the  pleasure  of  her  acquaintance 

Manning  Logan  gives  promise  of  an  honored  career.  K 
is  almost  a  counterpart  of  his  father  in  appearance  and  cli 
position,  though  inclining  toward  a  military  life  .rather  tha 
the  legal  profession.  He  is  always  far  to  the  front  in  all  h 
classes,  is  exemplary  in  conduct,  and  punctillious  in  matte: 
involving  his  personal  dignity  and  honor. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  4(J5 


CHAPTEK  XX. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  Gen.  Logan  is  ambitious;  am- 
Ditious  for  honors,  but  more  ambitious  for  the  good  opinions 
of  his  countrymen.  There  is  one  characteristic  specially 
conspicuous  in  Logan,  among  the  several  others  which  dis- 
inguish  him,  more  noticeable,  perhaps,  because  of  its  rar- 
ty;  this  is  his  sterling  honesty.  If  there  was  ever  an  hon 
est  man  on  this  earth,  John  A.  Logan  should  certainly  be  so 
considered.  Diogenes  would  have  halted  before  him  and 
blown  out  his  light,  having  found  the  object  of  his  search. 
This  language  would  be  regarded  as  florid  exaggeration,  and 
would  be  inexcusable,  except  that  I  use  it  qualifiedly,  to  ex 
press  my  earnest  convictions  of  Gen.  Logan's  true  charac- 
jter.  To  say  that  he  is  honest  would  be  without  force,  for 
Ithe  reason  that  thousands  of  men  are  said  to  be  honest 
who,  though  they  pass  for  such,  are  not  so  in  a  strict  inter 
pretation  of  the  word.  Therefore  I  use  a  more  earnest  ex 
pression  to  designate  Logan  as  a  man,  in  all  the  walks  of 
life,  sincerely,  scrupulously  honest  in  both  conviction  and 
every  act.  A  man  is  not  deserving  of  special  credit  because 
he  is  honest,  as  this  is  a  virtue  which  everyone  is  supposed 
to  possess,  but  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life,  and  particu 
larly  in  political  matters,  honesty  seems  to  exist  almost 
exclusively  in  the  abstract.  Abuses  in  office  are  almost  of 
dailv  report;  high  positions  are  prostituted  to  greed;  cor 
porations  obtain  extraordinary  privileges  through  the  influ 
ence  of  money,  while  many  who  have  resisted  the  power  of 
pelf  have  fallen  from  high  estate  through  the  potentiality  of 
female  lobyists. 


466  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Gen.  Logan  has  been  in  the  National  Legislature  for 
twenty  years ;  he  was  there  during  that  period  when  cor 
ruption  grew  strong,  because  so  few  had  the  hardihood  to 
condemn  it;  he  went  into  office  with  limited  means  and  had 
every  opportunity  thrust  upon  him  whereby  fortune  might 
be  made  with  small  fear  of  exposure.  But  the  strong  prin 
ciples  of  honor,  duty  and  love  of  country  which  make  up 
his  character,  rejected  every  dishonest  proposal  and  cor- 
ruptionists  found  in  him  a  foe  they  could  not  approach  with 
out  feeling  the  steel  of  exposure.  Pure  and  devoted  in  do 
mestic  life,  he  has  been  no  less  consciencious  and  correct  in 
his  duties  as  a  legislator.  No  trust  ever  reposed  in  him 
has  been  betrayed,  and  no  man  can  with  truth  say  that  (ion. 
Logan  ever  proved  recreant  to  his  professions  or  obliga 
tions.  Though  ambitious,  he  has  sought  advancement 
through  an  exhibition  of  meritorious  service,  through  loy 
alty  to  his  constituents,  through  championship  of  just  meas 
ures  and  a  bitter  condemnation  of  wrong;  thus  has  his  po 
litical  life  silenced  the  tongue  of  slander  and  won  the  admi 
ration  of  mankind. 

After  twenty  years  of  active  service  given  to  his  country, 
a  service  marked  by  great  ability  and  truthfulness;  a 
period  in  which,  had  he  exercised  his  endowments  in  the 
practice  of  the  law,  his  chosen  profession,  he  could  have 
reaped  a  fortune,  yet  to-day  he  is  a  poor  man,  rich  only  in 
the  consolation  that  he  has  discharged  all  his  duties  well. 
His  worldly  possessions  consist  of  a  dwelling  house  on  Calu 
met  avenue,  Chicago,  valued  at  $25,000,  which  the  grateful 
citizens  of  that  place  gave  him  to  attest  their  appreciation 
for  his  services  to  the  State  and  country,  and  also  as  an  in 
ducement  for  him  to  make  his  residence  among  them.  He 
also  owns  a  small  farm  near  Marion,  Illinois,  and  :i  half 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN. 


467 


perest  in  a  four  hundred  and  fifty  acre  farm  adjoining 
urphysboro. 

When  in  Washington,  where  he  spends  a  greater  portion 
his  time,  Gen.  Logan  and  his  wife  live  at  a  modest  board- 
|g  house  on  Twelfth  street,  where  they  occupy  only  two 
[oms  in  which  the  Senator  does  all  his  work.  In  these 
ys  of  lavish  display  and  expenditure,  when  nearly  all  legis- 
Itive  officers  of  the  government  affect  royal  pretensions, 
[•ending  princely  sums  in  grand  entertainments  and  per- 
nal  adornments,  the  example  of  Gen.  Logan  is  positively 
freshing,  and  commends  him  to  the  people  as  an  intellec- 
al  giant,  whose  abilities  contain  no  social  chaff,  and  whose 
erits  stand  solely  upon  his  public  worth  as  a  statesman 
| id  an  honest,  generous  man. 

In  the  olden  time,  when  patriotism  was  an  active  prin- 
ple  in  the  administration  of  all  official  duties,  the  qualities 
hich  Gen.  Logan  now  exhibits  would  have  been  a  passport 
I)  high  preferments,  but  to-day  they  seem  to  be  less  re- 
irded,  because  people  vote  for  party  rather  than  for  indi- 
iduals,  much  to  the  detriment  of  every  branch  of  the  public 
prvice.     I  can  say  to  the  masses,  however,  in  truth  and 
jindor,  that  Gen.  Logan  represents  the  purity  and  best  in 
vests  of  our  country,  and  with  his  great  coadjutor,  James 
|r.  Elaine,  the  Republican  ticket  this  year  concentrates  the 
)ftiest  purpose  that  has  been  declared  since  the  days  of 
ackson.     It  represents  the  best  interests  of  labor,  of  com- 
lerce,  of  national  stability,   of  freedom,  and   of  all  the 
ttendant  blessings  of  a  perfect  Republican  form  of  govern- 
lient.     More  than  this,  it  represents  strength  in  American 
haracter,-and  opposition  to  imported  social  idiosyncracies ; 
t  represents  a  rejection,  aye,   a  condemnation  of  the  cus- 
oms,  which  have  unfortunately  obtained,  and  which  tend  to 


468  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

supplant  real  republicanism  by  royal  affectation;  it  mean 
sturdiness  and  independence,  an  attachment  to  our  countr 
and  disdain  for  monarchies.  That  such  a  policy  is  neede< 
no  one  can  dispute,  for  the  signs  all  point  to  anemasculatioi 
of  American  character  under  the  social  regime  which  is  no\^ 
so  conspicuous  in  Washington .  A  President  cannot  make  lawj 
to  regulate  society,  but  he  can  be  so  representative  of  th( 
old  spirit  which  achieved  our  independence,  and  so  exem 
plary  in  an  observance  of  the  sturdy  customs  of  fifty  years 
ago,  that  the  most  affected  of  our  society  will  find  an  imita 
tion  of  English  aristocracy — glass  eye,  lap  dogs  and  donkey- 
isms — unpopular.  Both  Elaine  and  Logan  have  shown  such 
a  disposition  as  will  warrant  the  prophecy  that,  should  they  be 
chosen, 'which  they  certainly  will  be,  to  guide  our  constitu 
tional  ship,  they  will  revivify  the  spirit  of  '76  and  bring  us 
to  a  realization  of  our  pre-eminence  over  all  other  nations, 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  469 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  promise  of  Republican  success  in  the  campaign  of 
884,  makes  the  prospective  policy  of  Elaine  and  Logan  a 
ubject  of  vital  importance,  and  as  each  has  foreshadowed 
is  inclinations,   if   not  determinations,  in  speeches  upon 
ational  and  inter-national  questions,  involving  the  comity 
f  governments,  and   American   subjects    under  arrest   in 
oreign   countries,   we  may  conclude   from  their  past  ac- 
ions  the  course  which  they  will  most  likely  pursue.     Mr. 
JBlaine's  vigorous  policy  during  the  short  period  of  his  ser 
vice  as  Secretary  of  State,  gave  ample  proof  of  his  inten 
tion  to  advance  our  material  interest  by  establishing  a  rela 
tion  with  South  American  States  that  would  give  us  a  com- 
imercial  supremacy  in  those  countries,  which  we,  as  a  manu 
facturing  nation  ought,  by  right,  succeed  to  and  maintain. 
(Had  this  policy  of  Mr.  Elaine's,  which  was  outlined  in  his 
call  for  a  Peace  Congress,  succeeded,  the  results  would  no 
doubt  have  been  a  treaty  of  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
between  the  United  States  and  Southern  Republics,  which 
would  have  given  us  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  with  those 
countries.     More  than  this,  it  would  have  given  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  a  practical  test ;  it  would  have  set  the  wheels  of 
our  manufacturing  industries  in  quicker  motion  than  they 
have  ever  been ;  it  would  have  given  labor,  at  largely  in 
creased  prices,  to  every  mechanic,  and  spread  prosperity 
throughout  the  land. 

That  an  enforcement  of  Elaine's  South  American  policy 
would  have  brought  forth  fruit  to  tickle  the  taste  of  plenty, 


470  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SKKVICKS    OF 

cannot  for  a  moment  be  doubted,  after  a  full  consideratii 
of  all  the  facts.  I  will  not  present  figures,  but  the  asserti< 
goes  without  question,  that  all  South  America  is  strictly  j 
agricultural  and  stock-raising  country,  manufacturing 
few  articles  that  they  are  hardly  noticeable  even  amoi 
the  rural  classes.  This  vast  region,  thickly  populated,  ai 
with  no  inconsiderable  pretense  to  advance  civil i/atio 
draws  nearly  all  its  supplies  of  clothing  and  manufacture 
articles  from  England,  Spain,  France  and  Holland,  by  f 
the  greater  portion  being  imported  from  England.  Tl 
reason  we  export  so  little  to  South  America,  is  because  i 
effort  has  ever  been  made  by  us  to  establish  relations  wi 
that  section  of  America,  while  our  merchant  service  h 
been  allowed  to  almost  disappear.  What  was  needed 
give  us  a  monopolistic  footing  in  all  the  South  Amend 
States  and  the  Brazilian  Empire,  was  a  policy  such  as  M 
Blaine  proposed,  and  nothing  else,  for  we  can  manufactu 
all  classes  of  goods,  such  as  are  needed  in  South  Americ 
just  as  cheap  and  good  as  England,  while  our  advanta; 
is  great  in  the  time  of  transportation,  by  sea  route,  while 
great  trans-continental  rail  line  is  now  projected,  which,  wh< 
built,  as  soon  it  must  be,  will  bind  this  country  with  Mexic 
Central  and  South  America,  thus  giving  us  competing  route 
ensuring  both  quick  and  cheap  transportation. 

The  object  of  Mr.  Elaine's  proposed  Peace  Congress  w 
soon  discovered  by  England ;  she  saw  that  a  consummation 
his  designs  would  utterly  distroy  her  trade  with  the  Southe 
republics,  and  would  probably  so  stimulate  American  coi 
merce  on  the  high  seas  that  her  merchant  navy  would  1 
seriously  crippled  by  the  competition.  And  there  is  no  dou 
but  that  this  would  have  been  the  result. 

It  has  been  England's  policy  to  take  every  thing  she  ci 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  471 

it  and  to  hold  whatever  she  may  acquire,  utterly  regardless 
of  the  just  claims  of  others;  she  makes  every  act  expedient 
that  promises  any  advantage,  and  protects  her  commerce 
with  a  care  which  it  were  well  for  our  nation  to  imitate.  In 
pursuance  of  her  oft-demonstrated  policy  of  acquisition  and 
maintainance,  as  soon  as  England  perceived  the  object  of 
Mr.  Elaine's  call  for  a  Peace  Congress  with  the  South  Amer 
ican  governments,  she  raised  an  objection.  Why  did  she 
object?  Because  she  could  not  consent  to  the  adoption  of 
any  treaties  of  the  character  proposed,  between  the  United 
States  and  South  America,  unless  she  was  allowed  to  be  rep 
resented  in  the  conference.  This  was  impliedly  the  objec 
tion  raised  by  the  Gladstone  government.  About  this  time, 
and  before  Mr.  Blaine  could  answer  the  objections,  there  was 
a  change  in  the  Cabinet,  by  which  a  successor  to  Mr.  Blaine 
was  introduced  to  the  State  Department.  Immediately  suc 
ceeding  this  change,  the  negotiations  for  a  Peace  Congress 
abruptly  terminated,  and  the  fine  prospects  which  promised 
so  much  for  the  Blaine  policy,  were  dissipated  like  a  mirage 
by  changing  atmosphere. 

I  do  not  exaggerate  the  facts  in  saying  that  this  acquies 
cence  in  England's  dictation;  this  abandonment  of  one  of 
the  grandest  conceptions  that  has  ever  emanated  from  an 
American  statesman,  destroyed  the  greatest  opportunity 
our  country  ever  had  for  a  marvellous  stimulation  of  our 
paralyzed  industries;  defeated  the  most  magnificent  idea 
for  our  enrichment,  and  sacrificed  the  wisest  system  for  in 
creasing  the  price  of  wage-labor,  that  was  ever  planned  in 
the  history  of  our  country. 

Well,  we  are  at  peace  with  all  nations ;  peace  is  an  article 
of  great  value,  and  all  nations  should,  consistently,  try  to 
preserve  it ;  yet  peace  at  any  price  sometimes  exceeds  its 


472  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

worth.  We  might  have  had  peace  in  1776  by  submitting  to 
the  dictation  of  England,  but  we  refused  it  at  the  price 
asked.  We  might  have  had  peace  in  1812,  if  we  had  been 
willing  to  sacrifice  to  England,  the  Dictator,  but  the  article 
was  again  considered  too  expensive;  we  might  have  had 
peace  in  1861,  if  freedom-loving  loyalists  had  acquiesced  in 
the  demands  of  a  Southern  Confederacy,  incited  and  overtly 
assisted  by  England,  but  it  was  not  a  pearl  of  such  great 
price  that  tL  j  Union  could  afford  to  give  its  honor  for.  No  ! 
we  want  peace,  but  we  want  other  things  as  well.  We  want 
justice  first,  and  to  obtain  this  priceless  boon,  the  true 
American  will  sacrifice  peace,  if  necessary.  The  policy  of 
loyal  sovereigns  of  this  wise  Confederation  should  be  the 
maintainance  of  our  rights,  and  if  any  nation  attempts  to 
interfere  with  our  privileges,  is  it  not  our  duty  to  show  the 
sword  and  shield,  to  meet  arrogance  with  firmness  and  to 
give  a  thrust  if  necessary? 

Mr.  Elaine's  character  furnishes  hope,  belief,  that  as  our 
President  he  would  guard  with  jealousy  all  our  rights,  pro 
tect  every  American,  and  push  every  advantage  that  is  cal 
culated  to  help  our  national  prosperity  and  increase  our 
greatness. 

That  Gen.  Logan  is  a  firm  believer  in  the  wise  and  digni 
fied  policy  of  Mr.  Elaine  may  be  accepted,  for  no  man  was 
ever  prouder  of  his  nativity,  no  man  ever  loved  Republican 
institutions  better,  and  none  more  punctillious  in  matters  of 
honor,  than  he.  Gen.  Logan  is  a  patriot  as  ready  to  meet 
a  foreign  foe  as  he  was  to  defend  his  country  against  inter 
necine  enemies.  He  is  a  believer  in  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
a  champion  of  the  principles  which  led  our  feeble  Colonies 
to  hurl  defiance  and  hatred  at  a  hated  king;  a  man  loving 
a  government  by  and  for  the  people,  an  enemy  to  royalty, 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  473 

and  a  defender  of  freedom.  These  avowals  make  him  a 
supporter  of  Mr.  Elaine's  home  policy.  But  his  voice  has 
sounded  these  principles  more  emphatically.  In  his  speech 
to  the  soldiers  and  sailors  at  Washington  he  said :  * «  The 
Republican  party  will  not  complete  its  mission  until  pro 
tection  to  American  citizens  follows  the  flag,  at  home  and 
abroad ;  until  American  labor  and  industry  shall  be  protected 
by  wise  and  equitable  laws,  so  as  to  give  full  scope  to  our  im 
mense  resources  and  place  every  man  upon  the  plane  to 
which  he  is  entitled  by  reason  of  his  capacity  and  worth ; 
until  we  shall  have  established  a  wise  American  policy,  that 
will  not  only  preserve  peace  with  other  nations,  but  will 
cause  every  American  citizen  to  honor  his  government  at 
home,  and  every  civilized  nation  to  respect  our  flag ;  until 
American  people  shall  permanently  establish  a  thoroughly 
economic  system  upon  an  American  ideal,  which  will  pre 
serve  and  foster  their  own  interests,  uninfluenced  by  Eng 
lish  theories  or  the  *  Cobden  Club.'  ' 

These  are  no  uncertain  words,  but  are  the  incitement  of 
Mr.  Elaine's  forcible  doctrines,  showing  that  Logan  is  in 
full  accord  with  the  great  statesman  who  will  soon  be  in  a 
position  to  more  practically  enforce  his  just  and  wise  policy. 


474  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Tn  politics  all  men  must  be  controlled,  to  an  extent,  by 
influences  more  or  less  objectionable;  some  there  are  who 
succeed  through  promises  of  appointment,  others  by  more 
culpable  bargains,  while  only  the  few  secure  election  through 
merit  alone.  General  Logan  may  rightfully  be  included 
among  the  latter,  for,  aside  from  personal  influence,  he  was 
never  even  accused  of  procuring  votes  by  any  unfair  or  dis 
honorable  means.  To  the  charge  that  he  has  favored  many 
of  his  relatives  by  securing  their  appointment  to  office,  I 
can  answer  that  there  is  no  foundation  whatever  for  such  a 
report.  Mr.  Tucker,  Logan's  son-in-law,  is  a  paymaster  in 
the  army,  but  he  held  this  position  before  his  marriage,  and 
is  in  no  respect  indebted  to  Logan  for  the  appointment. 
James  Logan  is  postmaster  at  Murphysboro,  Illinois,  re 
ceiving  a  salary  of  thirteen  hundred  dollars  per  year,  but 
Gen.  Logan  neither  suggested  nor  influenced  the  appoint 
ment,  the  place  being  procured  through  another  public 
official  in  Washington.  The  only  position  that  Gen.  Logan 
ever  placed  at  the  disposal  of  one  of  his  relatives  was  a  small 
and  poorly  paid  office  in  Utah,  which  he  secured  to  Mr. 
Cunningham,  his  father-in-law,  who  died  a  short  time  after 
entering  upon  his  duties. 

I  have  tried  to  ascertain,  through  several  sources,  if  there 
are  any  other  relatives  of  Gen.  Logan  holding  office  ex 
cept  the  two  named,  but  have  been  unable  to  learn  that 
there  are,  nor  do  I  believe  there  are  any.  I  do  know 
of  several  relatives  in  Southern  Illinois,  both  of  himself  and 
Mrs.  Logan,  who,  although  poor,  have  never  held  an  office, 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  475 

though  perfectly  competent  to  do  so.  The  charge,  there 
fore,  of  nepotism,  made  against  him  by  reckless  calumni 
ators,  is  like  all  the  other  charges,  a  base  fabrication.  If 
Logan  had  provided  positions  for  his  worthy  relatives, 
certainly  such  a  fact  would  not  be  to  his  discredit — for  no 
Logan  was  ever  known  to  betray  a  trust — yet  it  is  the  cus 
tom  for  political  enemies  to  assail  such  appointments. 

Gen.  Logan  has  not  been  favorable  to  Civil  Service  Re 
form,  because  he  is  honest  enough  to  express  himself,  re 
gardless  of  public  opinion.  That  our  so-called  Civil  Service 
Reform  is  a  humbug  no  one  can  deny  who  is  familiar  with 
its  practical  workings ;  it  is  worse  than  a  fraud,  for  it  is 
proving  a  positive  evil,  besides  being  another  leech  on  the 
public  treasury.  Upon  hearing  a  report  of  Logan's  oppo 
sition  to  Civil  Service  Reform,  without  investigating  the 
truth  of  the  charge,  I  went  to  Washington  and  there  familiar 
ized  myself  with  its  practical  working.  I  found  there  five 
Commissioners  who  receive  annually  $5,000  each,  and  their 
travelling  expenses,  for  examining  applicants  for  the  public 
service.  Among1  these  Commissioners  I  found  one  who  had 

O 

been  actually  egged  and  driven  out  of  an  Illinois  college, 
where  he  had  been  regent,  and  who,  after  long  pursuit  for 
office,  had  finally  landed  in  this  soft  position,  and  at  the 
head  of  the  Commission,  too,  I  believe.  The  duties  of  this 
quinary  delegation  is  to  examine,  catechetically,  all  appli 
cants  for  government  position,  in  the  several  academic 
branches,  and  whether  the  examination  is  satisfactory  or 
not  the  candidates  are  entered  upon  a  book,  and  their 
chances  are  neither  increased  nor  diminished  by  their  ex 
perience  with  the  commission.  Whenever  a  candidate 
passes  the  average  required  he  is  told  to  return  home  and 
whenever  a  vacancy  occurs  1  e  will  be  communicated  with. 


476  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

Now,  what  practical  benefit  is  derived  from  this  system? 
No  one  ever  secured  an  appointment  merely  upon  the  record 
made  at  these  examinations,  while  clerks  in  all  the  depart 
ments  are  continually  being  appointed  and  discharged 
through  the  influence  of  Congressmen,  exactly  as  they  were 
before  the  Commission  was  created.  If  any  one  desires  a 
position  in  the  government  service,  let  him  not  apply  to  the 
Commission  for  examination,  but  to  some  influential  politi 
cian,  otherwise  he  will  have  nothing  but  trouble  for  his 
pains. 

It  is  for  the  reasons  Darned  that  Gen.  Logan  is  opposed 
to  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Commission.  Logan  has  always 
opposed  all  frauds  upon  the  government,  and  people  every 
where  will  applaud  him  for  it.  The  $80,000  which  it  costs 
the  government  annually  to  support  this  imposition  could  be 
used  with  vastly  greater  benefit  in  enlarging  the  usefulness 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  which  stands  so  nobly  and,  un 
fortunately,  so  near  the  Civil  Service  Commission  building. 

Gen.  Logan  has  little  concern  for  the  offices  that  are  to 
be  filled  in  Washington,  feeling  assured  that  the  service  will 
never  be  seriously  crippled  by  incompetents,  but  I  believe 
in  the  report  that  he  is  concerned  about  the  stigma  which 
disfigures,  by  unwarranted  pretences,  a  system  that  must 
combine  efficiency  with  economy;  a  system  that  ought  to 
embody  no  useless  or  extravagant  absurdity,  such,  as  the 
Civil  Service  Commission  manifestly  is. 

There  are  some  singular  coincidences  in  the  lives  of  James 
G.  Elaine  aud  John  A.  Logan,  which  must  attract  no  incon 
siderable  attention.  In  1860  it  will  be  remembered  that  the 
Eepublican  Convention  met  in  Chicago  and  nominated  their 
first  successful  candidates,  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois, 
and  Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine.  In  the  Convention  of 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  477 

1884  the  Kepublicans  took  their  candidates  from  the  same 
States  as  in  1860,  only  reversing  their  positions;  this  is  a 
strange  coincidence,  from  the  fact  that  no  other  candidates 
than  Hamlin  and  Elaine  have  ever  been  put  forward  for  the 
Presidency  from  Maine,  nor  do  I  believe  that  any  other 
candidates  from  that  State  were  ever  proposed,  or  even 
talked  of,  in  connection  with  the  Presidency. 

But  the  most  singular  coincidence  in  the  lives  of  Elaine 
and  Logan  is  found  in  the  fact  that  they  were  each  born  in 
a  country  village,  among  rugged  hills,  on  a  small  river,  and 
in  a  town  named  Brownsville,  Elaine  being  born  in  Browns 
ville,  Pennsylvania,  while  Logan's  birth-place  was  Browns 
ville,  Illinois.  In  addition  to  these  coinciding  facts  they 
have  both  been  in  public  life  nearly  the  same  time,  and 
filling  identical  positions,  with  the  exception  of  a  Cabinet 
place  and  Speakership  which  Mr.  Elaine  has  filled,  and  Gen. 
Logan  has  not.  They  are,  however,  about  equally  matched 
as  orators,  and  have  both  been  greatly  assisted  in  their 
political  ambitions  by  their  excellent  wives.  But  there  is 
still  another  point  of  similarity  between  them,  viz:  neither 
has  ever  had  his  name  associated  with  any  woman  in  social 
intrigue  or  scandal  at  Washington,  while  both  are  uncom 
monly  happy  in  their  domestic  relations,  devoted  not  only 
to  their  wives  but  even  companionable  with  their  children, 
thus  evidencing  the  great  purity  and  perfect  happiness  of 
their  lives. 

Gen  Logan  is  the  first  man  the  Kepublicans  have  nomi 
nated  for  a  Vice-Presidency  with  a  wife  to  share  the  honors. 
Dayton,  nominated  in  1856;  Hamlin,  in  1860;  Johnson,  in 
1864 ;  Colfax,  in  1868;  Wilson,  in  1872;  Wheeler,  in  1876, 
and  Arthur,  in  1880,  were  all  widowers.  The  election, 
therefore,  of  Gen.  Logan  will  have  no  small  effect  on  the 


478  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OF 

social  features  of  official  life  in  Washington,  as  his  wife  wall 
take  a  position  which  must  create  a  marked  change,  but  .^he 
will  prove  an  honored  social  representative  of  the  nation 
and  a  useful  associate  of  Mrs.  Blaine. 

The  country  may  well  rejoice  at  the  selection  made  by  its 
Republican  delegates,  at  the  candidacy  of  Blaine  and  Logan, 
for  they  have  been  tested  in  the  crucible  of  statesmanship 
and  found  to  be  pure;  they  have  been  tried  in  the  hour  of 
greatest  national  danger  and  found  to  be  patriots;  they 
have  been  proved  able,  fearless,  honest,  in  questions  of 
public  expediency,  and  their  leadership  has  elevated  the 
standard  of  our  greatness  as  a  nation.  With  pride  and  hope 
can  we  say  to  Blaine  and  Logan:  Hail  !  Chiefs  !  you  have 
been  faithful  in  much,  we  will  now  make  you  rulers  over 
many. 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN 


479 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

In  the  thirty  years  of  his  active  political  life,  holding  high 
offices  and  exciting  opposition  from  the  fiercest  enemies, 
Gen.  Logan  has  never  been  charged  with  any  corrupt  act. 
The  severest  thing  said  of  him  was  that  he  was  too  strictly 
partisan;  this  was  as  far  as  the  tongue  of  slander  ever  tried 
to  blacken  his  character,  until  within  the  past  few  months  a 
silly  and  most  senseless  accusation  was  made,  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  acquired  80,000  acres  of  land  in  New  Mexico, 
which  by  a  bold  or  cunning  manceuver  he  had  sequestered 
from  the  Zuni  Indians ;  that  in  addition  to  these  lands  he  had 
a  ranche  in  that  territory  on  which  were  grazing  30,000  head 
of  his  own  cattle.  This  story,  without  the  slightest  basis  of 
fact,  was  conceived  with  a  view  of  influencing  public  opin 
ion,  to  make  the  people  believe  that  he  is  a  very  rich  man, 
and  had  used  his  official  position  whereby  to  corruptly  pos 
sess  and  hold  an  immense  portion  of  the  Zuni  Eeservation. 

Now,  what  are  the  facts  upon  which  these  charges  rest? 
Simply  these:  Gen.  Logan's  son-in-law,  Major  Tucker, 
and  two  others,  each  entered  a  claim,  under  the  Desert 
Land  Act,  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  five  miles  from 
the  nearest  line  of  the  Zuni  Reservation.  Any  citizen  could 
do  the  same  thing,  but  since  Logan's  son-in-law  located  .a 
quarter-section,  why,  malignant  enemies,  that  they  might 
not  be  wholly  without  a  cry,  raised  up  their  voices  and 
credited  Logan  with  locating  80,000  acres  of  land  and  stock 
ing  it  with  30,000  head  of  cattle.  Although  Logan  does 
not  own  so  much  as  one  acre  of  land  outside  of  Illinois,  and 


480  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

not  a  single  head  of  stock,  this  fact  did  not  avail  against  his 
political  enemies;  they  must  have  some  charge,  and  they 
have  found  it  easier  and  handier  for  their  purpose  to  manu^ 
facture  a  charge  than  to  find  a  real  one,  particularly  sinc^ 
it  is  not  necessary  to  substantiate  a  campaign  report. 

These  charges,  however,  were  so  persistently  and  pro* 
vokingly  repeated  that  on  the  5th  of  July  Gen.  Logan  re 
plied  to  them  in  the  Senate  as  follows: 

"Mr.  President:  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  my  friends  that  I 
call  attention  to  certain  statements  I  find  copied  in  the  pub 
lic  press,  as  well  as  in  the  Congressional  Record  of  the  27th 
of  June. 

1.  "I  am  set  down  in  the  list  of  what  is  termed  land  grab 
bers,  as  having  in  some  mysterious  way  accumulated  the 
vast  amount  of  80,000  acres  of  land.  This  statement  is  ut 
terly  without  foundation  in  fact.  The  New  York  Herald  of 
the  29th  adds  30,000  head  of  cattle.  I  wish  this  were  true, 
but  there  is  no  foundation  for  the  statement.  I  would  take 
no  notice  of  this,  however,  were  it  not  for  the  charge  that 
follows.  2.  The  person  who  made  the  statement,  after 
finding  it  was  untrue,  instead  of  doing  justice  to  me,  against 
whom  he  might  by  his  erroneous  statements  have  done  an 
injury,  proceeded  to  put  another  false  statement  on  record, 
as  follows:  'I  might  have  said  to  the  deluded  soldiers  of 
this  land:  What  do  you  think  of  a  great  Senator,  who  in 
his  greed  to  absorb  the  territory  which  belongs  to  the  actual 
settler,  the  land  that  was  made  for  the  independent  freehold 
ers  and  small  farmers?  What  do  you  think  of  a  man  who 
poses  as  a  statesman  and  a  patriot,  as  a  friend  par  excel 
lence  of  the  soldier,  and  who,  under  cover  of  his  brother-in- 
law  went  to  New  Mexico  and  tried  to  pre-empt  the  most  val 
uable  land  lying  along  her  streams,  and  was  only  stopped  by 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  481 

j'ft  public  officer  finding  out  that  it  belonged  to  the  class  which 
the  prof  esses  the  utmost  friendship  for  (and  who  from  his 
||manner  and  appearance  rumor  says  has  their  blood  in  his 
iveins),  tried  to  steal  from  his  own  kith  and  kin  hundreds  of 
lacres  of  lands  [great  laughter  and  applause  on  the  Demo- 
rlcratic  side],  taking  from  the  unfortunate  si  ;age,'who  was 
f|unable  to  protect  himself,  until  an  honest  Secretary  of  the 
(Interior  went  there  with  a  surveyor  and  took  back  the  land 
;|for  the  Zunis?'  [Renewed  laughter  and  applause.] 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,  this  statement  is,  so  far  as  I  am 
I  concerned,  or  any  one  else  of  whom  I  have  any  knowledge, 
|  maliciously  false.  Sir,  what  are  the  facts  out  of  which  this 
(attack  has  been  made?  Capt.  Lawton,  Maj.  Tucker  and  Mr. 
|  Stout  located  claims  at  Neutria  Springs  and  lands  adjacent 
'in  New  Mexico,  not,  however,  until  after  ascertaining  from 
the  General  Land  Office  that  the  land  was  subject  to  loca 
tion,  being  outside  of  the  Indian  reservation,  some  five 
miles  from  the  Indian  line  and  some  twenty-five  miles  from 
the  town  of  Zuni.  So  it  will  be  seen  the  80,000  acres  of 
land  this  man  says  that  I  was  stealing  from  the  Indians,  re 
solves  itself  into  three  homesteads,  or  desert  act  claims, 
located  by  two  army  officers  and  one  citizen  on  public  lands 
open  to  such  entry;  with  such  location,  however,  I  had 
nothing  to  do." 

In  order  to  prove  the  statements  he  had  made,  Gen.  Logan 
read  a  number  of  letters .  The  first  was  a  letter  from  the  Com- 
missioner  General  of  the  Land  Office,  showing  that  the  land 
in  question  was  subject  to  location  and  entry  as  public  land 
at  the  time,  and  if  not  the  location  would  have  been  subject 
to  cancellation.  The  next  letter  was  from  Maj.  Tucker  to 
Secretary  Teller,  giving  the  facts  in  connection  with  the 
location  of  the  land  mentioned  by  him  and  his  associates, 


482  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

and  protesting  against  any  change  by  re-survey  of  the  Zun 
reservation.  He  says:  *  The  charges  against  Logan  in  con 
nection  with  these  lands  are  untrue.'  The  next  letter,  from 
Capt.  Lawton  to  Gen.  Logan  refutes  at  great  length  the 
charges  against  the  latter,  and  says:  *  There  is  not,  nor  has 
there  been,  any  company  or  organization  for  the  purpose 
of  buying  crowning  land, raising  stock,  or  starting  a  ranch 
on  the  Nutria  in  which  you,  or  any  other  person,  is  or  was 
interested.  My  entry  of  land  on  the  Nutria  was  made  ir 
good  faith  for  myself,  and  no  other  person  has  any  interesl 
in  my  locations.  Any  and  all  statements  that  there  is  01 
has  been  a  combination  either  to  secure  the  land  or  to  starl 
a  ranch  for  your  benefit,  or  for  the  benefit  of  any  persor 
other  than  those  appearing  on  the  record  in  the  Land  Office 
is  untrue. 

James  Stevenson,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Sur 
vey,  bears  the  following  testimony  in  a  letter  to  Senatoi 
Logan:  "Having  had  my  attention  called  to  statements  ir 
the  Congressional  Record  of  recent  date,  indirectly  charging 
you  with  fraudulently  attempting  to  deprive  the  Zuni  Indi 
ans  of  New  Mexico  of  their  lands,  I  beg  to  say  that  I  an 
familiar  with  the  facts  and  circumstances  from  thorough  in 
vestigation  of  the  subject,  made  at  the  request  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior,  and  take  pleasure  in  stating  that  the 
allegations  thus  made  are  grossly  unjust  to  you,  as  well  ast< 
Maj.  Tucker  and  his  associates,  and  wholly  without  foun 
dation." 

The  last  letter  of  the  series  is  from  Secretary  Teller  t( 
Gen.  Logan.  In  it  he  says:  "There  is  not  the  slightes 
evidence  that  any  wrong  was  intended  or  done  by  parties  t( 
the  entries,  or  any  law  violated.  The  land  was  public  lane 
at  the  time  these  entries  were  made,  and  as  such  was  opei 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  483 

to  entry  by  the  public.  The  gentlemen  who  made  the  entries 
were  qualified  to  enter  such  lands,  and  had  a  perfect  right  to 
jdo  so,  and  they  neither  violated  the  law  nor  the  rights  of  any 
[parties  whatever  in  so  doing.  I  asked  the  executor  to  order 
[the  extending  of  the  reservation  without  understanding  all 
jthe  facts  at  the  time.  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  make  this 
[statement,  in  view  of  allegations  to  the  contrary  which  have 
Ibeen  made." 

* '  When  Maj .  Tucker  and  his  associates  were  attacked 
(through  the  newspapers,"  said  Gen.  Logan,  "and  charged 
(with  interfering  with  the  rights  of  the  Indians,  and  doing  a 
[great  wrong,  I  defended  them  in  a  letter  through  the  pub- 
!lic  press,  and  otherwise,  as  having  violated  no  law,  and  as 
having  committed  no  fraud  on  the  Indians  or  anyone  else. 
In  that  defense  I  asked  the  question  if  a  soldier  like  Capt. 
Lawton  could  not  locate  a  homestead  (or  pre-emption  or 
whatever  the  location  was)  within  the  distance  he  had  to 
the  Indian  reservation,  to  tell  me  how  many  miles  a  sol 
dier  would  have  to  go  away  from  a  reservation  in  order  to 
comply  with  the  law.  This  I  did  in  their  behalf.  I  now 
stand  by  what  I  then  did.  If  this  be  a  crime  or  a  fraud, 
my  enemies  can  make  the  most  of  it.  These  men  are  all 
honorable  men.  Capt.  Lawton  was  a  gallant  soldier  from 
Indiana,  served  all  through  the  war  with  great  credit  to 
himself  and  honor  to  his  country.  Maj.  Tucker  is  my  son- 
in-law.  He  is  a  gentleman,  and  a  man  who  would  not 
wrong  anyone.  I  presume  the  wrong  in  me  is  that  Maj. 
Tucker  is  a  part  of  my  own  family;  and,  although  he  is  in 
nocent  of  any  wrong  in  the  premises,  a  baseless  excuse  was 
made  to  assail  me  through  him.  If  their  object  was  to 
draw  me  into  his  defense,  they  have  succeeded  ;  and  when 
anyone  thinks  I  have  not  manhood  enough  to  defend  openty 


484  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

my  relative  or  friend  when  wrongfully  assailed,  he  mistakes 
me.  This,  sir,  is  my  full  answer  to  this  false,  unprovoked 
and  malicious  slander,  which  I  place  on  record,  where  all 
may  have  access  to  it  if  desired." 

A  more  complete  answer  was  never  made  to  any  charges, 
and  the  frankness  with  which  he  treats  the  report  is  an  ex 
position  of  his  slanderers,  their  infamous  ways  and  con 
scienceless  statements,  their  desperate  resorts  to  stain  a 
character  that  is  as  pure  as  that  of  any  man  who  ever  occu 
pied  a  position  in  public  life;  a  man  against  whom  the 
shafts  of  malice,  jealousy,  falsehood,  envy  or  hatred  cannot 
prevail,  because  his  is  the  armor  of  honesty  and  honor. 
Fair-minded  persons,  of  whatever  party  predilection,  who 
read  this  statement  of  Gen.  Logan's,  cannot  avoid  the  con 
clusion  that  it  were  better  to  change  politics  than  to  affiliate 
with  men  who  perpetrate  such  malicious  falsehoods,  and  by 
so  doing  betray  a  conscienceless  dishonesty  which  reflects 
discredit  upon  the  entire  party. 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  485 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  administration  of  James  A.  Garfield  was  begun  under 
many  happy  auspicies,  chief  among  which  were  public  con 
fidence  and  the  absence  of  any  issue  that  was  calculated 
to  arouse  animosities  either  within  or  without  the  party. 
Mr.  Garfield' s  letter  of  acceptance  contributed  very  much 
to  this  accord  of  popular  sentiment  by  allaying  all  doubts 
and  establishing  a  firm  conviction  that  his  administration 
would  prove  a  wise  and  just  one.  The  declarations  and 
generous  impulses  of  this  letter  were  so  manifestly  pro 
phetic  of  the  inauguration  of  a  sagacious  statesmanship,  ap 
plicable  to  the  exigencies  of  any  occasion  which  might  arise 
during  his  term  of  office,  that  it  obtained  for  him  a  support 
which  circumstances  indicated  would  have  been  otherwise 
withheld.  As  Mr.  Garfield' s  acceptance  was  written  with 
the  view  of  restoring  the  waning  prestige  of  Republicanism, 
and  the  carrying  out  of  his  avowals  was  largely  entrusted  to 
Mr.  Elaine,  I  herewith  append  the  full  text  of  that  import 
ant  letter,  together  with  such  comments  as  I  believe  its 
import  justifies : 

MENTOR,  OHIO,  July  10,  1880. 

DEAR  SIR: — On  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  June  last  I  had 
the  honor  to  receive  from  you,  in  the  presence  of  the  com 
mittee  of  which  you  were  chairman,  the  official  announce 
ment  that  the  Republican  National  Convention  at  Chicago 
had  that  day  nominated  me  as  their  candidate  for  President 
of  the  United  States.  I  accept  the  nomination  with  grati 
tude  for  the  confidence  it  implies  and  with  a  deep  sense  of 


486  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

the  responsibilities  it  imposes.  I  cordially  indorse  the 
principles  set  forth  in  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Conven 
tion.  On  nearly  all  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats,  my 
opinions  are  on  record  among  the  published  proceedings  of 
Congress.  I  venture,  however,  to  make  special  mention  of 
some  of  the  principal  topics  which  are  likely  to  become  sub 
jects  of  discussion. 

FEDERAL  AND  STATE  GOVERNMENTS. 

Without  reviewing  the  controversies  which  have  been  set 
tled  during  the  last  twenty  years,  and  with  no  purpose  or 
wish  to  revive  the  passions  of  the  late  war,  it  should  be  said 
that  while  the  Republicans  fully  recognize  and  will  strenu 
ously  defend  all  the  rights  retained  by  the  people  and  all 
the  rights  reserved  to  the  States,  they  reject  the  pernicious 
doctrine  of  State  supremacy,  which  so  long  crippled  the 
functions  of  the  National  Government,  and  at  one  time 
brought  the  Union  very  near  to  destruction.  They  insist 
that  the  United  States  is  a  nation,  with  ample  powers  of 
self-preservation ;  that  its  constitution  and  the  laws  made 
in  pursuance  thereof  are  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  ;  that 
the  right  of  the  nation  to  determine  the  method  by  which 
its  own  Legislature  shall  be  created  cannot  be  surrendered 
without  abdicating  one  of  the  fundamental  powers  of  gov 
ernment  ;  that  the  national  laws  relating  to  the  election  of 
Representatives  in  Congress  shall  neither  be  violated  nor 
evaded  ;  that  every  elector  shall  be  permitted  freely  and 
without  intimidation  to  cast  his  lawful  ballot  at  such  elec 
tion  and  have  it  honestly  counted,  and  that  the  potency  of 
his  vote  shall  not  be  destroyed  by  the  fraudulent  vote  of 
any  other  person. 

THE    ROAD   TO    PEACE. 

The  best  thoughts  and  energies  of  our  people  should  be 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  487 

directed  to  those  great  questions  of  national  well-being  in 
which  all  have  a  common  interest.  Such  efforts  will  soon 
est  restore  to  perfect  peace  those  who  were  lately  in  arms 
against  each  other ;  for  justice  and  good-will  will  outlast 
passion.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  wounds  of  the  war  can 
not  be  completely  healed,  and  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  can 
not  fully  pervade  the  whole  country  until  every  citizen,  rich 
or  poor,  white  or  black,  is  secure  in  the  free  and  equal  en 
joyment  of  every  civil  and  political  right  guaranteed  by  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws.  Wherever  the  enjoyment  of 
these  rights  is  not  assured  discontent  will  prevail,  immigra 
tion  will  cease,  and  the  social  and  industrial  forces  will  con 
tinue  to  be  disturbed  by  the  migration  of  laborers  and  the 
consequent  diminution  of  prosperity.  The  national  govern 
ment  should  exercise  all  its  constitutional  authority  to  put 
an  end  to  these  evils ;  for  all  the  people  and  all  the  States 
are  members  of  one  body,  and  no  member  can  suffer  with 
out  injury  to  all. 

EVILS   WHICH   AFFLICT   THE   SOUTH. 

The  most  serious  evils  which  now  afflict  the  South  arise 
from  the  fact  that  there  is  not  such  freedom  and  toleration 
of  political  opinion  and  action  that  the  minority  party  can 
exercise  an  effective  and  wholesome  restraint  upon  the 
party  in  power.  Without  such  restraint  party  rule  becomes 
tyrannical  and  corrupt.  The  prosperity  which  is  made  pos 
sible  in  the  South  by  its  great  advantages  of  soil  and  climate 
will  never  be  realized  until  every  voter  can  freely  and  safely 
support  any  party  he  pleases. 

THE   EDUCATIONAL   QUESTION. 

Next  in  importance  to  freedom  and  justice  is  popular  ed 
ucation,  without  which  neither  justice  nor  freedom  can  be 


488  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

permanently  maintained.  Its  interests  are  intrusted  to  the 
States  and  to  the  voluntary  action  of  the  people.  Whatever 
help  the  nation  can  justly  afford  should  be  generously  given 
to  aid  the  States  in  supporting  common  schools;  but  it 
would  be  unjust  to  our  people  and  dangerous  to  our  institu 
tions  to  apply  any  portion  of  the  revenues  of  the  nation  or 
of  the  States  to  the  support  of  sectarian  schools.  The  sep 
aration  of  the  church  and  state  in  everything  relating  to 
taxation  should  be  absolute. 

THE    FINANCES. 

On  the  subject  of  national  finances  my  views  have  been 
so  frequently  and  fully  expressed  that  little  is  needed  in  the 
way  of  additional  statement.  The  public  debt  is  now  so 
well  secured,  and  the  rate  of  annual  interest  has  been  so  re 
duced  by  refunding,  that  rigid  economy  in  expenditures 
and  the  faithful  application  of  our  surplus  revenues  to  the 
payment  of  the  principal  of  the  debt  will  gradually  but  cer 
tainly  free  the  people  from  its  burdens  and  close  with  honor 
the  financial  chapter  of  the  war.  At  the  same  time  the 
government  can  provide  for  all  its  ordinary  expenditures 
and  discharge  its  sacred  obligations  to  the  soldiers  of  the 

o  o 

Union  and  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  fell  in 
its  defense. 

RESUMPTION. 

The  resumption  of  specie  payments,  which  the  Republi 
can  party  so  courageously  and  successfully  accomplished, 
has  removed  from  the  field  of  controversy  many  questions 
that  long  and  seriously  disturbed  the  credit  of  the  govern 
ment  and  the  business  of  the  country.  Our  paper  currency 
is  now  as  national  as  the  flag,  and  resumption  has  not  only 
made  it  everywhere  equal  to  coin  but  has  brought  into  use 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  489 

our  store  of  gold  and  silver.  The  circulating  medium  is 
more  abundant  than  ever  before,  and  we  need  only  to  main 
tain  the  equality  of  all  our  dollars  to  insure  to  labor  and 
capital  a  measure  of  value  from  the  use  of  which  no  one  can 
suffer  loss.  The  great  prosperity  which  the  country  is  now 
enjoying  should  not  be  endangered  by  any  violent  changes 
or  doubtful  financial  experiments. 

THE    TAKIFF. 

In  reference  to  our  custom  laws  a  policy  should  bo  pur 
sued  which  will  bring  revenues  to  the  Treasury  and  will 
enable  the  labor  and  capital  employed  in  our  great  indus 
tries  to  compete  fairly,  in  our  own 'markets,  with  the  labor 
and  capital  of  foreign  producers.  We  legislate  for  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  not  for  the  whole  world,  and  it  is 
our  glory  that  the  American  laborer  is  more  intelligent  and 
better  paid  than  his  foreign  competitor.  Our  country  can 
not  be  independent  unless  its  people,  with  their  abundant 
natural  resources,  possess  the  requisite  skill  at  any  time  to 
clothe,  arm  and  equip  themselves  for  war,  and  in  time  of 
peace  to  produce  all  the  necessary  implements  of  labor.  It 
was  the  manifest  intention  of  the  founders  of  the  govern 
ment  to  provide  for  the  common  defense,  not  by  standing 
armies  alone,  but  by  raising  among  the  people  a  greater 
army  of  artisans,  whose  intelligence  and  skill  should  power 
fully  contribute  to  the  safety  and  glory  of  the  nation. 

INTERNAL    IMPROVEMENTS. 

Fortunately  for  the  interests  of  commerce,  there  is  no 
longer  any  formidable  opposition  to  appropriations  for  the 
improvement  of  our  harbors  and  great  navigable  rivers, 
provided  that  the  expenditures  for  that  purpose  are  strictly 
limited  to  works  of  national  importance.  The  Mississippi 


490  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC   SERVICES    OF 

river,  with  its  great  tributaries,  is  of  such  vital  importance 
to  so  many  millions  of  people  that  the  safety  of  its  naviga 
tion  requires  exceptional  consideration.  In  order  to  secure 
to  the  nation  the  control  of  all  its  waters,  President  Jeffer 
son  negotiated  the  purchase  of  a  vast  territory,  extending 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  wisdom 
of  Congress  should  be  invoked  to  devise  some  plan  by  which 
that  great  river  shall  cease  to  be  a  terror  to  those  who  dwell 
upon  its  banks,  and  by  which  its  shipping  may  safely  carry 
the  industrial  products  of  twenty-five  millions  of  people. 
The  interests  of  agriculture,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  our 
material  prosperity,  and  in  which  seven-twelfths  of  our 
population  are  engaged,  as  well  as  the  interests  of  manu 
facturers  and  commerce,  demand  that  the  facilities  for  cheap 
transportation  shall  be  increased  by  the  use  of  all  our  great 
watercourses. 

CHINESE    IMMIGRATION. 

The  material  interests  of  this  country,  the  traditions  of 
its  settlement  and  the  sentiment  of  our  people  have  led  the 
government  to  offer  the  widest  hospitality  to  emigrants  who 
seek  our  shores  for  new  and  happier  homes,  willing  to  share 
the  burdens  as  well  as  the  benefits  of  our  society,  and  in 
tending  that  their  posterity  shall  become  an  undistinguish- 
able  part  of  our  population.  The  recent  movement  of  the 
Chinese  to  our  Pacific  coast  partakes  but  little  of  the  qual 
ities  of  such  an  emigration,  either  in  its  purpose  or  its  re 
sults.  It  is  too  much  like  an  importation  to  be  welcomed 
without  restrictions,  too  much  like  an  invasion  to  be  looked 
upon  without  solicitude.  We  cannot  consent  to  allow  any 
form  of  servile  labor  to  be  introduced  among  us  under  the 
guise  of  immigration.  Recognizing  the  gravity  of  this  sub 
ject,  the  present  administration,  supported  by  Congress,  has 


JOHN  A.  LOGAN.  491 

sent  to  China  a  commission  of  distinguished  citizens  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  such  a  modification  of  the  existing 
treaty  as  will  prevent  the  evils  likely  to  arise  from  the 
present  situation.  It  is  confidently  believed  that  these 
diplomatic  negotiations  will  be  successful  without  the  loss 
of  commercial  intercourse  between  the  two  powers,  which 
promises  a  great  increase  of  reciprocal  trade,  and  the  en 
largement  of  our  markets.  Should  these  efforts  fail  it  will 
be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  mitigate  the  evils  already  felt 
and  prevent  their  increase  by  such  restrictions  as,  without 
violence  or  injustice,  will  place  upon  a  sure  foundation 
the  peace  of  our  communities  and  the  freedom  and  dignity 
of  labor. 

CIVIL  SERVICE. 

The  appointment  of  citizens  to  the  various  executive  and 
judicial  offices  of  the  government  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
difficult  of  all  duties  which  the  Constitution  has  imposed  on 
the  Executive.  The  Convention  wisely  demands  that  Con 
gress  shall  co-operate  with  the  Executive  departments  in 
placing  the  civil  service  on  a  better  basis.  Experience  has 
proved  that  with  our  frequent  changes  of  administration  no 
system  of  reform  can  be  made  effective  and  permanent 
without  the  aid  of  legislation.  Appointments  to  the  mili 
tary  and  naval  service  are  so  regulated  by  law  and  custom 
as  to  leave  but  little  ground  for  complaint.  It  may  not  be 
wise  to  make  similar  regulations  by  law  for  the  civil  ser 
vice.  But,  without  invading  the  authority  or  necessary 
discretion  of  the  Executive,  Congress  should  devise  a  method 
that  will  determine  the  tenure  of  office  and  greatly  reduce 
the  uncertainty  which  makes  that  service  so  uncertain  and 
unsatisfactory.  Without  depriving  any  officer  of  his  rights 
as  a  citizen,  the  government  should  require  him  to  discharge 


402  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OP 

;ill  his  official  duties  with  intelligence,  efficiency  and  faith 
fulness.  To  select  wisely  from  our  vast  population  those 
who  are  best  fitted  for  the  many  offices  tr  be  filled  requires 
an  acquaintance  far  beyond  the  range  of  any  one  man.  The 
executive  should,  therefore,  seek  and  receive  the  informa 
tion  and  assistance  of  those  whose  knowledge  of  the  com 
munities  in  which  the  duties  arc  to  be  performed  best  qual 
ifies  them  to  aid  in  making  the  wisest  choice. 

The  doctrines  announced  by  the  Chicago  Convention  are 
not  the  temporary  devices  of  a  party  to  attract  votes  and 
carry  an  election.  They  are  deliberate  convictions  resulting 
from  a  careful  study  of  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  the 
events  of  our  history  and  the  best  impulses  of  our  people. 
In  my  judgment  these  principles  should  control  the  legislation 
and  administration  of  the  government.  In  any  event,  they 
will  guide  my  conduct  until  experience  points  out  a  better 
way.  If  elected,  it  will  be  my  purpose  to  enforce  strict 
obedience  to  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  and  to  promote, 
as  best  I  may,  the  interest  and  honor  of  the  whole  country, 
relying  for  support  upon  the  wisdom  of  Congress,  the  intel 
ligence  and  patriotism  of  the  people  and  the  favor  of  God. 

With  great  respect,  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 
To  HON.  GEORGE  F.  HOAR,  Chairman  of  Committee. 

While  the  fell  hand  of  assassination  prevented  President 
Garfield  from  carrying  out  all  the  promises  contained  in  his 
letter,  he  inaugurated  such  a  policy  as  plainly  indicated  his 
purpose  to  make  good  the  utterances  it  contained. 

Mr.  Hayes'  administration  had  proved  unsatisfactory; 
his  acts  bore  the  stamp  of  indecision  and  indicated  a  lack  of 
courage;  while  his  veto  of  the  refunding  bill  was  so  injudi 
cious  and  harmful  to  public  interests  that  it  seriously  jeopar- 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  493 

dized  the  honor  of  his  party.  Mr.  Garfield,  however,  to  a 
very  great  extent,  at  least,  overcame  the  prejudice  thus  ex 
cited,  by  his  epistolary  declarations,  and  went  into  office 
with  few  grave  difficulties  to  meet.  But  being  a  schooled 
as  well  as  natural  statesman,  he  knew  that  only  a  strong 
and  constant  hand  could  steer  the  ship  of  state  safely  on  a 
sea  rendered  always  treacherous  by  political  opposition  and 
the  placemen  who,  like  pirates,  buffet  about,  always  watch 
ing  for  prizes  to  capture  or  wrecks  to  fall  upon.  He  was 
therefore  a  man  with  a  policy,  well  conceived  and  confident 
ly  adhered  to.  This  strong  trait  in  his  character  was  not 
long  in  manifesting  itself,  but  to  make  his  aims  more  cer 
tain  he  called  to  his  aid  James  G.  Blaine,  whose  wisdom 
and  firmness  peculiarly  fitted  him  for  vigorous  service. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  accepted  the  Portfolio  of  State  he  was 
in  complete  accord  with  the  policy,  hopes,  and  intentions  of 
President  Garfield,  and  if  he  had  any  ambitions  thereafter 
they  were  undoubtedly  approved  of  by  the  President ;  this 
made  Mr.  Blaine  a  part  of  the  administration.  But  there 
was  more  than  a  mere  accord  of  policy  between  them ;  the 
two  had  been  friends  for  twenty  years,  serving  together 
in  the  halls  of  legislation,  members  of  the  same  party  in 
all  that  time,  and  together  they  shared  a  social  intimacy 
and  admiration  seldom  seen  in  official  life.  When,  there 
fore,  Mr.  Blaine  represented  any  State  policy  under  Pres 
ident  Garfield  that  policy  was  the  idea  of  them  both,  so  de 
clared  and  consistently  followed.  No  other  Secretary  of 
State  was  ever  so  near  the  President  as  Mr.  Blaine  was  to 
Garfield,  and  for  these  several  reasons  we  are  justified  in 
saying  that  Mr.  Blaine  was  a  faithful  representative  of  the 
administration. 


494  LIFE   AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES   OP 

When  a  fight  was  made  over  Mr.  Kobertson's  appoint 
ment  to  the  Customs  Collectorship  of  New  York,  Elaine 
and  Garficld  stood  together  like  Corsican  brothers,  and  re 
mained  steadfast  through  all  the  fierce  wrangle  which 
resulted  finally  in  Garfield's  death.  By  the  very  facts  lead 
ing  to  his  assassination,  Mr.  Garficld  showed  how  nearly  his 
administration  was  divided  with  Elaine,  divided  in  its  re 
sponsibilities  and  ambitions  and,  as  near  as  possible,  be 
queathed  just  before  death  to  his  trusted  Secretary. 

Mr.  Garficld  not  only  sustained  Elaine  in  his  South 
American  policy  and  in  the  proposed  arbitrament  between 
Chili  and  Peru,  but  in  the  proposed  Peace  Congress  also; 
he  also  sustained  him  in  his  interpretation  of  the  Cluyton- 
Eulwer  treaty,  and  in  his  basis  for  treaties  with  Mexico. 
In  fact,  Mr.  Garficld  applauded  all  the  suggestions  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  so  that  after  the  assassination  of  the  President  Mr. 
Elaine  remained  as  an  exponent  of  Garfield's  administration, 
and  in  this  light  he  must  ever  be  regarded.  When,  there 
fore,  Mr. Elaine  was  superceded  by  President  Arthur's  ap 
pointment,  and  the  vigorous  policy  which  he  represented 
'was  displaced  by  pacificatory  measures  taken  to  annul  Mr. 
Elaine's  action,  it  operated  merely  as  an  abeyance  until  the 
sense  of  public  opinion  could  be  taken. 

When  Johnson  succeeded  to  the  Presidency,  by  the  act 
of  an  assassin,  he  adopted  a  policy  opposite  to  the  line 
of  duty  as  drawn  by  Lincoln.  His  action  was  not  sustained 
by  public  opinion  for  two  reasons;  one  was,  because  it  was 
inexpedient;  and  the  other, — which  was  far  more  forcible — 
because,  having  been  elected  with  Lincoln  upon  the  same 
declaration  of  principles,  he  should  have  carried  out  the 
policy  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  same  cogent 
reasoning  applies  to  the  action  taken  by  President  Arthur 


JOHN  A.    LOGAN.  495 

in  opposing  the  principles  and  policies  of  President  Garfield, 
for  the  circumstances  are  identical. 

Mr.  Blaine  continued  in  a  consistent  course  as  his  duty 
required,  and  this  firm  adherence,  as  well  as  the  justice  and 
wisdom  of  his  policy,  entitles  him  to  the  Presidential  suc 
cession.  I  do  not  pretend  that  Mr.  Elaine's  chief  merits 
for  election  depend  upon  the  fact  of  his  being  a  represen 
tative  of  the  Garfield  administration,  but  call  attention  to  it 
because  it  furnishes  at  least  one  strong  reason  why  he 
should  be  chosen. 

The  spirited  manner  in  which  Gen.  Logan  assailed  Presi 
dent  Johnson  for  subverting  the  effects  and  intents  of  Lin- 

O 

coin's  policy  also  entitles  him  to  the  suffrage  of  all  fair- 
minded  men,  particularly  since  to  that  meritorious  act  he 
has  added  many  others,  described  in  previous  chapters  of 
this  work. 


.I!"!  LIFE   AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  nominations  of  Elaine  and  Logan  were  accomplished 
under  circumstances  so  rare  and  so  praiseworthy  that  the 
reader's  attention  may  properly  be  called  to  them  in  this 
connection,  in  comparison  with  the  Republican  nominations 
that  have  been  made  since  the  war. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  chosen  in  1860  by  the  Republicans 
because  of  his  acknowledged  great  powers  and  sterling  in 
tegrity.  He  was  a  magnetic  man,  and  better  represented 
the  principles  of  his  party  than  any  other  person ;  besides, 
it  was  generally  conceded  that  Douglas  would  be  the  Dem 
ocratic  choice,  and  there  was,  in  consequence,  a  desire  to 
isee  the  campaign  of  1858  fought  out  again  between  these 
two  intellectual  giants,  on  a  broader  field. 

Lincoln's  second  nomination  followed  as  a  consequence 
of  his  unexampled  administration,  because  he  proved  him 
self  to  be  the  grandest  man  that  this  country  has  given  birth 
to.  The  exigencies  of  the  hour,  too,  demanded  him,  for  no 
other  was  capable  to  take  his  place  at  such  a  time. 

Gen.  Grant  became  the  Republican  party's  nominee  be 
cause  of  his  soldier  prestige ;  all  nations  are  quick  to  honor 
their  successful  field  officers,  and  America  is  even  more 
prone  to  elevate  its  soldiers  than  any  other  country.  Gen. 
Grant  was  wholly  untried  in  statesmanship  and  his  election 
to  the  Presidency  was  therefore  an  experiment,  but  his  ad 
ministration  was  successful  and  this,  together  with  the  more 
influential  facts  appertaining  to  re-construction  and  other 
unsettled  issues  growing  out  of  the  war,  caused  him  to  be 


JOHN   A.    LOGAN.  497 

nominated  for  a  second  term.  He  was  defeated  in  his  as 
pirations  for  a  third  term  because  his  great  influence  as  a 
soldier  had,  by  the  obliterating  influence  of  time,  become 
less  conspicuous,  while  his  second  administration  was  not 
so  brilliant  as  to  retain  the  popular  admiration  once  felt 
for  him. 

Rutherford  B.  Hays  was  nominated  in  1876,  not  because 
he  was  the  choice  of  his  party,  but  because  the  factions  ad 
hering  to  Blaine,  Morton  and  Bristow  were  so  devoted  to 
their  respective  candidates  that  a  compromise  had  to  be  made 
and  Hays  was  selected.  Lightning  struck  him  out  of  a 
clear  sky. 

Gen.  Garfield  was  chosen  in  1880  as  a  compromise  between 
the  Blaine  and  Grant  factions;  Garfield  had  never,  perhaps, 
dreamed  of  filling  the  President's  chair  at  Washington,  but 
the  accident  of  his  nomination  secured  a  wise  ruler  and  gave 
us  the  greatest  Secretary  of  State  that  ever  filled  the  office. 

The  nomination  of  James  G.  Blaine  and  John  A.  Logan, 
was  accomplished  under  circumstances  so  totally  different 
from  any  that  entered  into  the  success  of  other  nominees, 
that  they  represent,  more  than  any  other  Republican  nomi 
nation  that  was  ever  made,  the  will  and  desire  of  the  people. 
By  the  operation  of  a  custom  which  has  obtained  in  later 
years  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter  for  the  occupant  of 
the  White  House  to  secure  a  second  nomination ;  I  doa't  say 
this  in  any  disparagement  of  the  President,  for  he  is  hardly 
responsible,  as  the  government  employes  everywhere  con 
tribute  to  this  result.  It  is  but  natural  that  each  person 
holding  position  in  the  Government  service  should  seek  to 
retain  his  place,  and  since  there  are  nearly  100,000  office 
holders  their  influence  is  an  immense  factor  in  the  delegate 
elections.  Hence,  I  say  that  the  advantage  held  by  the 


LIFE   AND  PUBLIC   SERVICES   OP 

President  is  so  considerable  that,  even  aside  from  general 
satisfaction  with  his  administration,  it  is  usual  to  secure  a 
second  nomination.  But  Mr.  Elaine  was  put  forward  upon 
his  merits,  without  aid  from  the  usual  political  sources;  he 
represented  no  clique  nor  faction,  was  out  of  office  and  pur 
suing  a  taxing  literary  engagement,  had  made  no  efforts  to 
secure  a  nomination,  gave  no  one  a  promise  for  influence, 
neither  solicited  nor  courted  any  man's  vote,  made  no  politi 
cal  journeys  through  the  country,  and  in  short,  made  no  ef 
fort  whatsoever  to  thrust  himself  forward  for  the  prize. 

In  contrast  with  the  indifference  exhibited  by  Mr.  Elaine, 
there  was  great  activity  and  drilling  of  forces  by  several 
avowed  candidates,  while  President  Arthur  was  boldly  in  the 
field  seeking  a  nomination,  not  by  personal  appeal,  but 
through  the  official  hosts  distributed  in  every  State  and  Ter 
ritory. 

The  Convention  of  1884  was  not  only  the  largest  assem 
bling  of  delegates  that  ever  took  place,  but  it  was  composed 
of  the  most  intellectual  elements,  including  among  the  num 
ber  many  of  the  great  leaders  of  public  opinion,  distin 
guished  editors,  authors,  and  statesmen.  They  came  to 
gether  with  a  settled  purpose,  with  a  determination  to 
nominate  a  man  who  was  great  enough  to  draw  the  Presi 
dency  to  him,  a  man  great  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
There  were  scores  of  delegates  in  the  Convention  clamoring 
for  their  preferences,  there  were  those  who  sought  to  cry 
down  Elaine,  and  others  who  said,  "Anything  to  beat 
Elaine,"  and  so  a  fierce  fight  went  on,  the  people  shouting 
and  declaring  they  would  have  none  but  Elaine,  while  the 
professional  politicians  vehemently  denounced  him.  Dur 
ing  the  fray,  this  scramble  between  the  people  and  poli 
ticians,  Mr.  Elaine  was  at  his  home,  way  off  at  Augusta, 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  499 

Maine,  undisturbed,  enjoying  the  society  of  his  wife  and 
children,  swinging  under  the  shade  trees  which  adorn  his 
ample  lawn,  or  meeting  the  acquaintances  of  his  youth  and 
neighbors,  making  no  reference  to  the  contest  at  Chicago, 
and  careless  of  the  result  which  might  be  reached  there. 
He  never  even  so  much  as  sent  a  telegram  of  advice  or  sug 
gestion  to  his  friends  there,  and  in  every  respect  manifested 
an  unexampled  indifference,  feeling  that  since  he  had  not 
sought  the  office,  it  remained  entirely  with  the  people  whether 
or  not  he  should  be  the  choice  of  the  Convention. 

But  the  people  wanted  "  Jim  Blaine;"  they  wanted  the 
man  who  had  proclaimed  the  right  of  America  to  control 
her  own  affairs  without  English  dictation;  they  wanted  the 
man  who  conceived  a  means  for  diverting  the  immense  trade 
of  South  America  from  Europe  to  this  country;  they 
wanted  the  man  who  is  every  inch  an  American,  and  who, 
if  President,  would  not  hesitate  to  go  to  war  if  it  were  nec 
essary  for  the  protection  of  an  American  subject;  they 
wanted  the  man  of  brains,  energy,  courage  and  brilliant 
record ;  they  wanted  the  man  who  has  made  enemies  by  his 
fearless  advocacy  of  just  measures,  a  man  who  can  hurl 
defiance  at  his  foes,  or  wither  them  by  his  honest  gaze, — 
and  so  they  called  for  "  Jim  Blaine,"  called  with  a  voice 
that  proved  their  earnestness,  and  with  manfulness  they 
carried  his  name  successfully  through  the  Convention.  So 
strong  was  he  that  no  combination  could  have  defeated  him, 
strong  in  the  hearts  and  confidence  of  the  people,  strong  in 
his  convictions  and  strong  at  the  polls.  His  triumph  at 
Chicago  was  equivalent  to  public  declaration  that  his  policies 
had  been  sanctioned  by  the  people,  and  that  by  every  right 
he  should  be  successor  yet  to  Garfield,  and  carry  out  the 
purposes  announced  in  the  assassinated  President's  letter 


500  LIFE    AND   PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

I 

of  acceptance.  Such  a  popular  uprising  for  any  man  was 
never  before  witnessed  in  this  nation,  such  unanimity  of 
sentiment,  such  boldness  of  determination.  It  was  a  glori 
ous  example  of  the  office  seeking  the  man  which  we  have 
never  had  before  in  this  country,  and  it  was  a  sign  that  the 
people  have  at  last  come  to  the  front  to  put  down  dishon 
est  pretense  and  exalt  merit.  It  was  also  a  condemnation 
of  the  outrageous  and  culpable  action  of  the  enemies  of 
fairness,  who,  in  the  Convention  at  Cincinnati  in  1870,  to 
prevent  Mr.  Elaine's  nomination,  forced  an  adjournment, 
by  cutting  off  the  supply  of  gas.  It  required  an  uprising 
of  the  people  to  suppress  the  infamous  schemes  and  schem 
ers  who  sought,  by  every  disreputable  means,  to  prevent  a 
nomination  of  the  most  popular  man  in  the  nation.  The 
triumph,  therefore,  of  Mr.  Elaine,  under  the  circumstances, 
was  one  of  the  most  complete  and  wonderful  in  the  history 
of  American  politics,  and  is,  I  believe,  without  precedent. 
The  influences  which  operated  to  nominate  Elaine  were 
conspicuously  noticeable  in  the  nomination  of  Logan.  It 
was  an  apparent  fact  that  public  sentiment — the  people — 
were  attracted  to  Gen.  Logan  almost  as  strongly  as  they 
were  to  Mr.  Elaine;  in  one  they  recognized  abilities  for 
leadership  and  statesmanship  unsurpassed  by  any  example 
in  national  legislation  ;  a  peer  to  Calhoun,  Henry  Clay, 
AVebster,  Eenton,  or  any  other  luminary  that  has  shed  re 
nown  upon  the  Senate.  In  the  other  they  recognized  a  wise 
representative  in  whose  life  the  bright  star  of  patriotism 
shines  with  fadeless  lustre,  and  in  whose  acts  there  is  seen 
an  example  of  faithfulness  to  public  trusts  which  draws  ad 
miration  not  only  from  partisans,  but  from  all  honest  men. 
These  two  great  exponents  of  Republicanism  were,  there 
fore,  almost  equally  esteemed  by  the  people,  and  yet  their 


JOHN    A.    LOGAN.  501 

respective  adherents  exhibited  no  other  feelings  than  of  the 
most  friendly  character  to  each  other,  so  that  the  nomina 
tion  of  Mr.  Elaine  to  the  Presidency  was  necessarily  fol 
lowed  by  Gen.  Logan's  nomination  to  the  Vice-Presidency. 
This  combination,  therefore,  represents  more  truly,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  that  was  ever  similarly  formed,  the  wishes 
and  true  interests  of  the  people,  being  a  direct  creation  at 
their  hands  in  opposition  to  the  most  strenuous  and  unfair 
endeavors  of  politicians. 

There  was  an  element,  however,  which  favored  Gen. 
Logan  that  was  not  so  conspicuous  in  the  support  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  which  was  the  soldier  vote,  a  very  important  factor 
of  strength  in  the  Republican  party;  so  considerable  indeed 
that  it  is  essential  to  the  success  of  any  party.  Upon  the 
principle  that  the  wrorld  honors  a  brave  man,  we  may  confi 
dently  conclude  that  Gen.  Logan's  strength  lies  not  wholly 
in  the  affections  of  his  own  soldiery,  or  members  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  but  his  popularity  is  well 
established  amon^  thousands  of  those  whom  he  fought.  In 

O  O 

battle  every  other  sentiment  gives  place  to  valor,  but  when 
the  clouds  of  war  disperse,  honor  succeeds,  and  with  honor 
and  peace  appear  magnanimity,  for  it  is  only  the  brave  soldier 
that  can  appear  generous.  When  Logan  laid  aside  his  sword 
he  took  up  the  olive  branch  and  placed  it  across  the  bloody 
breach  dividing  the  North  and  South;  he  was  not  without 
respect  for  the  heroes  who  contested  against  him  in  famous 
fights;  he  was  generous  enough,  while  condemning  their 
cause,  to  believe  in  their  sincerity,  and  this  magnanimous 
spirit  his  chivalric  foes  applaud  as  well  as  give  honest  admi 
ration  for  the  heroism  which  he  displayed.  This  is  the  evi 
dence  upon  which  I  base  the  declaration  that  thousands  of 
brave  men  in  the  South  will  flock  to  his  standard  now. 


502  LIFE    AND    PUBLIC    SERVICES    OF 

lihiine  and  Logan !  Whut  nobler  sons  does  Columbia 
acknowledge;  what  worthier  representatives  can  the  people 
find;  in  whom  is  the  hope  of  America's  greatness  more  con 
spicuous?  The  tocsin  has  sounded,  who  will  doubtfully 
stand,  who  will  hesitate  in  their  duty?  The  colors  of  free 
dom  and  union  wave  gracefully,  proudly  over  Elaine  and 
Logan;  wherever  those  colors  float  there  is  the  rallying 
place  for  lovers  of  their  country.  In  the  halls  of  Congress 
Blaine  has  been  a  plumed  knight  in  forensic  contest  against 
sympathizers  with  disunion ;  a  stalwart  patriot,  a  noble 
man,  when  able  and  loyal  men  were  needed  to  stand  as  pil 
lars  of  adamant  to  sustain  the  constitutional  superstructure. 
In  the  fore-front  of  battle  for  the  Union,  Logan  rode,  nor 
sheathed  his  sword  until  the  sisterhood  of  States  had  been 
re-established,  until  liberty  had  flung  her  undisputed  ensign 
over  North  and  South  and  peace  garlanded  the  nation  with 
laurel  and  yew.  Blaine  and  Logan,  favorite  sons  of  a  re 
stored  nation,  belong  to  their  country,  and  the  great  pop 
ular  heart  throbs  with  gratitude  at  a  mention  of  their  names. 


LETTERS  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 


MR.  ELAINE'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

AUGUSTA,  ME.,  July  15,  1884. 

The  Hon.  John  B.  Henderson  and  others  of  the  commit 
tee,  etc.,  etc. : 

GENTLEMEN — In  accepting  the  nomination  for  the  Pres 
idency  tendered  me  by  the  Republican  National  Convention, 
I  beg  to  express  a  deep  sense  of  the  honor  which  is 
conferred  and  of  the  duty  which  is  imposed.  I  venture 
to  accompany  the  acceptance  with  some  observations 
upon  the  questions  involved  in  the  contest — questions  whose 
settlement  may  affect  the  future  of  the  nation  favorably  or 
unfavorably  for  a  long  series  of  years. 

In  enumerating  the  issues  upon  which  the  Republican 
party  appeals  for  popular  support,  the  Convention  has  been 
singularly  explicit  and  felicitous.  It  has  properly  given 
the  leading  position  to  the  industrial  interests  of  the  country 
as  effected  by  the  tariff  on  imports.  On  that  question  the 
two  political  parties  are  radically  in  conflict.  Almost  the 
first  act  of  the  Republicans,  when  they  came  into  power  in 
1861,  was  the  establishment  of  a  principle  of  protection  to 
American  labor  and  to  American  capital.  This  principle 
the  Republican  party  has  ever  since  steadily  maintained, 
while  on  the  other  hand  the  Democratic  party  in  Congress 
has  for  fifty  years  persistently  warred  upon  it.  Twice  within 

503 


.'      ;  BLAINK    AM>    I.' 

that  ]>eri(Kl  our  opponents  L  roved  tariffs  arrange 

for  j  :i,  and  since  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  whenevc 

thev  have  coutrolled  the  House  of  Representative.-,   hostil 
ition  has  been  attempted — nevermore  conspicuousl 
than  in  their  principal  measure  at  the  hi*  "ii  of  Cor 

-     «• 

THE    TARIFF  QUESTION". 

Revenue  laws  are  in  their  very  nature  subject  to  f  requei 

on  in  order  that  they  may  be  adapted  to  chani; 
modifications  of  trade.     The  Republican  party  is  n 
tending  for  the  permanency  of  any  particular  statute.     T 
between  the  two  parties  does  not  have  reference  t 
•ilic  law.     It  is  f  :ir  *  :    ider  and  far  deeper.     It  involve 
a  principle    of   wide  ap  '      'ion    and  beneficent  influence 
against  a  theory  which  we  ve  to  be  unsound  in  concef 

lion  and  inevitably  hurtful  i.        -ictice.     In  the  many  tarij 
revisions  which  have  been  net  for  the  past   twenty 

three-  r  which  mav  herea.         become  necessary,  th 

Republican  party  has  maintained,  1  will  maintain,  th 
policy  of  protection  to  American  ina  v.  while  our  ( •]»}*: 
nents  iu-i>t  upon  a  revision  which  pnu  tly  destroy >  thti 
policy.  The  i.-sue  is  thus  distinct,  well  ined  and  una 
voidable.  The  pending  election  may  determine  the  fate  o 
protection  for  a  generation.  The  overthrow  of  the  polic 
means  a  large  and  permanent  reduction  in  the  wages  of  th 
American  laborer,  besides  involvingthe  loss  of  vast  amount 
of  American  capital  invested  in  manufacturing  enterprises 
The  value  of  the  present  revenue  system  to  the  people  o 
the  United  States  is  not  a  matter  of  theory,  and  I  slia! 
submit  no  argument  to  sustain  it.  I  only  invite  attentio; 
.tain  fart-  of  official  record  which  seems  to  con.-titute 
ration. 


LETTERS    OF   ACCEPTANCE.  505 

In  the  census  of  1850  an  effort  was  made,  for  the  first 
time  in  our  history,  to  obtain  a  valuation  of  all  the  prop 
erty  in  the  United  States.  The  attempt  was  in  a  large 
degree  unsuccessful.  Partly  from  lack  of  time,  partly  from 
prejudice  among  many  who  thought  the  inquiries  fore 
shadowed  anew  scheme  of  taxation,  the  returns  were  incom 
plete  and  unsatisfactory.  Little  more  was  done  than  to 
consolidate  the  local  valuation  used  in  the  States  for  pur 
poses  of  assessment,  and  that,  as  every  one  knows,  differs 
widely  from  a  complete  exhibit  of  all  the  property. 

In  the  census  of  I860,  however,  the  work  was  done  with 
great  thoroughness — the  distinction  between  * 'assessed'' 
value  and  "true"  value  being  carefully  observed.  The 
grand  result  was  that  the  "true  value"  of  all  the  property 
in  the  States  and  Territories  (including  slaves)  amounted  to 
fourteen  thousand  millions  of  dollars  ($14,000,000,000). 
This  aggregate  was  the  net  result  of  the  labor  and  savings 
of  all  the  people  in  the  area  of  the  United  States  from  the 
time  the  first  British  colonist  landed  in  1607  down  to  the 
year  18(50.  It  represented  the  fruit  of  the  toil  of  250  years. 

After  18 GO  the  business  of  the  country  was  encouraged 
and  developed  by  a  protective  tariff.  At  the  end  of  twenty 
years  the  total  property  of  the  United  States,  as  returned  by 
the  census  of  1880,  amounted  to  the  enormous  aggregate  of 
fourty-four  thousand  millions  of  dollars  ($44,000,000,000). 
The  great  result  was  attained,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
countless  millions  had  in  the  interval  been  wasted  in  the 
progress  of  a  bloody  war.  It  thus  appears  that  while  our 
population  between  I860  and  1880  increased  60  per  cent, 
the  aggregate  property  of  the  country  increased  214  per 
cent — showing  a  vastly  enhanced  wealth  per  capita  among 
the  people.  Thirty  thousand  millions  of  dollars  ($30,000,- 


506  BLAIM:  AND  LOGAN'S 

/ 

000,000)  had  been  added  during  the  twenty  years  to  the  per 
manent  wealth  of  the  nation. 

The>e  results  are  regarded  by  the  older  nations  of  the 
world  as  phenomenal.  That  our  country  should  surmount 
the  peril  and  the  cost  of  a  gigantic  war,  and  for  an  entire 
period  of  twenty  years  make  an  average  gain  to  its  wealth 
of  $12."), ()()(), ()()()  per  month,  surpasses  the  experience  of  all 
other  nations,  ancient  or  modern.  Even  the  opponents  of 
the  present  revenue  system  do  not  pretend  that  in  the  whole 
history  of  civilization  any  parellel  can  be  found  to  the  mate 
rial  progress  of  the  United  States  since  the  accession  of  the 
Republican  party  to  power. 

The  period  between  1800  and  to-day  has  not  been  one  of 
material  prosperity  only.  At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States  has  there  been  such  progress  in  the  moral  and 
philanthropic  field.  Religious  and  charitable  institutions, 
schools,  seminaries  and  colleges;  have  been  founded  and  en 
dowed  far  more  generously  than  at  any  previous  time  in 
our  history.  Greater  and  more  varied  relief  has  been  ex 
tended  to  human  suffering,  and  the  entire  progress  of  the 
country  in  wealth  has  been  accompanied  and  dignified  by  a 
broadening  and  elevation  of  our  national  character  as  a 
people. 

Our  opponents  find  fault  that  our  revenue  system  pro 
duces  a  surplus.  But  they  should  not  forget  that  the  law 
has  given  a  specific  purpose  to  which  all  of  the  surplus  is 
profitably  and  honorably  applied — the  reduction  of  the  pub 
lic  debt  and  the  consequent  relief  of  the  burden  of  taxation. 
No  dollar  has  been  wasted,  and  the  only  extravagance  with 
whieh  the  party  stands  charged  is  the  generous  pensioning 
of  soldiers,  sailors  and  their  families — an  extravagance 
'•  !:ieh  embodies  the  highest  form  of  justice  in  the  recog- 


LETTERS  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  507 

nition  and  payment  of  a  sacred  debt.  When  reduction  of 
taxation  is  to  be  made,  the  Republican  party  can  be  trusted 
to  accomplish  it  in  such  form  as  will  most  effectively  aid 
the  industries  of  the  nation. 

OUR  FOREIGN    COMMERCE. 

A  frequent  accusation  by  our  opponents  is  that  the  for 
eign  commerce  of  the  country  has  steadily  decayed  under 
the  influence  of  the  protective  tariff.  In  this  way  they  seek 
to  array  the  importing  interest  against  the  Republican  party. 
It  is  a  common  and  yet  radical  error  to  confound  the  com 
merce  of  the  country  with  its  carrying  trade — an  error  of 
ten  committed  innocently  and  sometimes  designedly — but 
an  error  so  gross  that  it  does  not  distinguish  between  the 
ship  and  the  cargo.  Foreign  commerce  represents  the  ex 
ports  and  imports  of  a  country  regardless  of  the  nationality 
of  the  vessel  that  may  carry  the  commodities  of  exchange. 

Our  carrying  trade  has  from  obvious  causes  suffered 
many  discouragements  since  1860,  but  our  foreign  com 
merce  has  in  the  same  period  steadily  and  prodigiously  in 
creased — increased  indeed  at  a,  rate  and  to  an  amount  which 
absolutely  dwarf  all  previous  developments  of  our  trade  be 
yond  the  sea.  From  1860  to  the  present  time  the  foreign 
commerce  of  the  United  States  (divided  with  approximate 
equality  between  exports  and  imports)  reached  the  astound 
ing  aggregate  of  twenty-four  thousand  millions  of  dollars 
($24,000,000,000).  The  balance  in  this  vast  commerce 
inclined  in  our  favor,  but  it  would  have  been  much  larger  if 
our  trade  with  the  countries  of  America,  elsewhere  referred 
to,  had  been  more  wisely  adjusted. 

It  is  difficult  even  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  our 
export  trade  since  1860,  and  we  can  gain  a  correct  concep- 


r.i.MM.   AM»   i.<  M,  \\  § 


tion  of  it  only  by  comparison  with  preceding  results  in  the 
sumo  Hold.  The  total  exports  from  the  United  States  from 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  177i>  down  to  the  day  of 
Lincoln's  election  in  !*»><),  added  to  all  that  had  previou>ly 
l>oen  exported  from  the  American  colonies  from  their  origi 
nal  settlement,  amounted  to  less  than  nine  thousand  millions 
of  dollars  (  SIMHHI.  <)<><»,  non  ).  On  the  other  hand  our  ex 
ports  from  IXiJi)  to  the  elosc  of  the  la>t  H>cal  year  exceeded 
twelve  thousand  millions  of  dollars  ($!:?,<  ><>(),  in  ><),()<  M))__  the 
whole  of  it  being  the  product  of  American  labor.  Evidently 
a  protective  tariff  has  not  injured  our  export  trade  when, 
under  its  influence,  weexported  in  twenty-four  years  40  per 
cent  more  than  the  total  amount  that  had  been  exported  in 
the  entire  previous  history  of  American  commerce.  All 
the  dotaiN,  when  analyzed,  correspond  with  this  gigantic 
result.  The  commercial  cities  of  the  Union  never  had  such 
growth  as  they  have  had  since  IS(tt).  Our  chief  emporium, 
the  City  of  New  York,  with  its  dependencies,  has  within 
that  period  doubled  her  population  and  in<-rea>ed  her  wealth 
live  fold.  During  the  same  period  the  imports  and  exports 
which  have  entered  and  left  her  harbor  are  more  than  double 
in  bulk  and  value  the  whole  amount  imported  and  exported 
by  her  between  the  settlement  of  the  Hrst  Dutch  colony  on  the 
island  of  Manhattan  and  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  in  1  v 

AGRICTLTniE  AND  THE  TAHITI'. 

The  Agricultural  interest  is  by  far  the  largest  in  the  na 
tion,  and  is  entitled  in  every  adjustment  of  revenue  law-  to 
the  Hrst  consideration.  Any  policy  hostile  to  the  fulle-t 
development  of  agriculture  in  the  United  States  mu>t  tMJ 
abandoned.  Idealizing  this  fact,  the  opponents  of  the  pres 
ent  system  of  revenue  have  labored  very  earnestly  lo  per- 


LETTERS  OF  ACCKITANCK,  f>ojf 

suade  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  that  they  are  robbed 
bv  a  protective  tariff,  and  the  effort  is  thus  made  to  consoli 
date  their  vast  influence  in  favor  of  free  trade.  But  hap 
pily  the  farmers  of  America  are  intelligent  and  cannot  bo 
misled  by  sophistry  when  conclusive  facts  are  before  them. 
They  see  plainly  that  during  the  past  twenty-four  years 
wealth  has  not  been  acquired  in  one  section  or  by  one  inter 
est  at  the  expense  of  another  section  or  another  interest, 
They  see  that  the  agricultural  States  have  made  even  more 
rapid  progress  than  the  manufacturing  States. 

The  farmers  see  that  in  18(50  Massachusetts  and  Illinois 
had  about  the  same  wealth — between  $800,000,000  and 
1><>0, 000, 000  each — and  that  in  1880  Massachusetts  had  ad 
vanced  to  $2,600,000,000,  while  Illinois  had  advanced  to 
$3,200,000,000.  They  see  that  New  Jersey  and  Iowa  were 
just  equal  in  population  in  18<>0,  and  that  in  twenty  years 
the  wealth  of  New  Jersey  was  increased  by  the  sum  of 
$850,000,000,  wdiile  the  wealth  of  Iowa  was  increased  by 
the  sum  of  $1,500,000,000.  They  see  that  the  nine  leading 
agricultural  States  of  the  AVest  have  grown  so  rapidly  in 
prosperity  that  the  aggregate  addition  to  their  wealth  since 
lM'>0  is  almost  as  great  as  the  wealth  of  the  entire  country 
in  that  year.  They  see  that  the  South,  which  is  almost  ex 
clusively  agricultural,  has  shared  in  the  general  prosperity, 
and  that  having  recovered  from  the  loss  and  devastation  of 
war,  has  gained  so  rapidly  that  its  total  wealth  is  at  least 
the  double  of  that  which  it  possessed  in  I860,  exclusive  of 
slaves. 

In  these  extraordinary  developments  the  farmers  are  the 
helpful  impulse  of  a  home  market,  and  they  see  that  the 
financial  and  revenue  system,  enacted  since  the  Republican 
party  came  into  power,  has  established  and  constantly  ex- 


510  liLAIXK    AM)    LOGAN'S 

panded  the  home  market.  They  see  that  even  in  the  case 
of  wheat,  which  is  our  chief  cereal  export,  they  have  sold, 
in  the  average  of  the  years  since  the  close  of  the  war,  three 
bushels  at  home  to  one  they  have  sold  abroad,  and  that  in 
the  ea-e  of  corn,  the  only  other  cereal  which  we  export  to 
any  extent,  one  hundred  bushels  have  been  used  at  home  to 
three  and  a  half  bushels  exported.  In  some  years  the  dis 
parity  has  been  so  great  that  for  every  peck  of  corn  ex 
ported  one  hundred  bushels  have  been  consumed  in  the 
home  market.  The  farmers  see  that  in  the  increasing  com 
petition  from  the  grain  fields  of  Russia  and  from  the  distant 
plains-  of  India,  the  growth  of  the  home  market  becomes 
daily  of  greater  concern  to  them  and  that  its  impairment 
would  depreciate  the  value  of  every  acre  of  tillable  land 
in  the  Union. 

OUR   INTERNAL    COMMERCE. 

Such  facts  as  these  touching  the  growth  and  consumption 
of  cereals  at  home,  give  us  some  slight  conception  of  the 
vast  ness  of  the  internal  commerce  of  the  United  States. 
They  suggest,  also,  that  in  addition  to  the  advantages  which 
the  American  people  enjoy  from  protection  against  foreign 
competition,  they  enjoy  the  advantages  of  absolute  free 
trade  over  a  larger  area  and  with  a  greater  population  than 
any  other  nation.  The  internal  commerce  of  our  thirty- 
eight  States  and  nine  Territories  is  carried  on  without  let  or 
hindrance,  without  tax,  detention  or  governmental  interfer 
ence  of  any  kind  whatever.  It  spreads  freely  over  an  area 
of  three  and  a  half  million  square  miles — almost  equal  in 
extent  to  the  whole  continent  of  Europe.  Its  profits  are 
enjoyed  to-day  by  50,000,000  of  American  freemen,  and 
from  this  enjoyment  no  monopoly  is  created.  According 


LETTERS  OF  ACCKITAXCK.  511 

to  Alexander  Hamilton,  when  he  discussed  the  same  subject 
in  171)0,  "the  internal  competition  which  takes  place  does 
away  with  everything  like  monopoly,  and  by  degrees  re 
duces  the  prices  of  articles  to  the  minimum  of  a  reasonable 
profit  on  the  capital  employed."  It  is  impossible  to  point 
to  a  single  monopoly  in  the  United  States  that  has  been  cre 
ated  or  fostered  by  the  industrial  system  which  is  upheld  by 
the  Republican  party. 

Compared  with  our  foreign  commerce  these  domestic 
exchanges  are  inconceivably  great  in  amount — requiring 
merely  as  one  instrumentality  as  large  a  mileage  of  railway 
as  exists  to-day  in  all  the  other  nations  of  the  world  com 
bined.  These  internal  exchanges  are  estimated  by  the  Sta 
tistical  Bureau  of  the  Treasury  Department  to  be  annually 
twenty  times  as  great  in  amount  as  our  foreign  commerce. 
It  is  into  this  vast  field  of  home  trade — at  once  the  creation 
and  the  heritage  of  the  American  people — that  foreign  na 
tions  are  striving  by  every  device  to  enter.  It  is  into  this 
field  that  the  opponents  of  our  present  revenue  system  would 
freely  admit  the  countries  of  Europe — countries  into  whose 
internal  trade  we  could  not  reciprocally  enter;  countries  to 
which  we  should  be  surrendering  every  advantage  of  trade; 
from  which  we  should  be  gaining  nothing  in  return. 

EFFECT  UPON  THE  MECHANIC  AND  THE  LABORER. 

A  policy  of  this  kind  would  be  disastrous  to  the  mechanics 
and  workingmen  of  the  United  States.  Wages  are  unjustly 
reduced  when  an  industrious  man  is  not  able  by  his  earnings 
to  live  in  comfort,  educate  his  children  and  lay  by  a  suf 
ficient  amount  for  the  necessities  of  a^e.  The  reduction  of 

O 

wages  inevitably  consequent  upon  throwing  our  home  market 
open  to  the  world,  would  deprive  them  of  the  power  to  do 


;»li>  hi. AIM:   AND 

this.  It  Would  prove  a  great  calamity  to  our  country.  It 
would  produce  a  conflict  between  the  poor  and  the  rich,  and 
it)  the  sorrowful  degradation  of  labor  would  plant  the  seeds 
of  public  danger. 

The  Republican  party  has  steadily  aimed  to  maintain  just 
relations  between  labor  and  capital — guarding  with  care  the 
rights  of  each.  A  conflict  between  the  two  has  always  led 
in  the  past  and  will  always  lead  in  the  future  to  the  injury 
of  both.  Labor  is  indispensable  to  the  creation  and  profita 
ble  u-e  of  capital,  and  capital  increases  the  efficiency  and 
value  of  labor.  Whoever  arrays  the  one  against  the  other 
is  an  enemy  of  both.  That  policy  is  wisest  and  best  which 
harmonizes  the  two  on  the  basis  of  absolute  justice.  The 
Republican  party  has  protected  the  free  labor  of  America  so 
that  its  compensation  is  larger  than  is  realized  in  any  other 
country.  It  has  guarded  our  people  against  the  unfair  com 
petition  of  contract  labor  from  China  and  may  be  called  upon 
to  prohibit  the  growth  of  a  similar  evil  from  Europe.  It  is 
obviously  unfair  to  permit  capitalists  to  make  contracts  for 
cheap  labor  in  foreign  countries  to  the  hurt  and  disparage 
ment  of  the  labor  of  American  citizens.  Such  a  policy, 
(like  that  which  would  leave  the  time  and  other  conditions 
of  home  labor  exclusively  in  the  control  of  the  employer) 
is  injurious  to  all  parties — not  the  least  so  to  the  unhappy 
persons  who  are  made  the  subjects  of  the  con  tract.  The  in 
stitutions  of  the  United  States  rest  upon  the  intelligence  and 
virtue  of  all  the  people.  Suffrage  is  made  universal  as  a 
just  weapon  of  self-protection  to  every  citizen.  It  is  not 
the  interests  of  the  republic  that  any  economic  system  should 
be  adopted  which  involves  the  reduction  of  wages  to  the 
hard  standard  prevailing  elsewhere.  The  Republic-ail  party 
aims  to  elevate  and  dignify  labor — not  to  degrade  it. 


LEtTERS    OF    AC'CKi'TAM1!'!;  513 

As  a  substitute  for  the  industrial  system  which,  under 
Republican  administrations,  has  developed  such  extraordi 
nary  prosperity,  our  opponents  offer  a  policy  which  is  but  a 
series  of  experiments  upon  our  system  of  revenue — a  policy 
whose  end  must  be  harm  to  our  manufacturers  and  greater 
harm  to  our  labor.  Experiment  in  the  industrial  and  finan 
cial  system  is  the  country's  greatest  dread,  as  stability  is 
its  greatest  boon.  Even  the  uncertainty  resulting  from  the 
recent  tariff  agitation  in  Congress  has  hurtfully  affected  the 
business  of  the  entire  country.  Who  can  measure  the  harm 
to  our  shops  and  our  homes,  to  our  farms  and  our  commerce, 
if  the  uncertainty  of  perpetual  tariff  agitation  is  to  be  in 
flicted  upon  the  country?  We  are  in  the  midst  of  an 
abundant  harvest;  we  are  on  the  eve  of  a  revival  of  general 
prosperity.  Nothing  stands  in  our  way  but  the  dread  of  a 
change  in  the  industrial  system  which  has  wrought  such 
wonders  in  the  last  twenty  years  and  which,  with  the  power 
of  increased  capital,  will  work  still  greater  marvels  of  pros 
perity  in  the  twenty  years  to  come. 

OUR  FOREIGN  POLICY. 

Our  foreign  relations  favor  our  domestic  development. 
We  are  at  peace  with  the  world — at  peace  upon  a  sound 
basis,  with  no  unsettled  questions  of  sufficient  magnitude  to 
embarrass  or  distract  us.  Happily  removed  by  our  geo 
graphical  position  from  participation  or  interest  in  those 
questions  of  dynasty  or  boundary  which  so  frequently  dis 
turb  the  peace  of  Europe,  we  are  left  to  cultivate  friendly 
relations  wit  hall,  and  are  free  from  possible  entanglements 
in  the  quarrels  of  any.  The  United  States  has  no  cause  and 
no  desire  to  engage  in  conflict  with  any  power  on  earth,  and 


.")!  J  11  LA  INK    AND 

we  may  rest  in  assured  confidence  that  no  power  desires  to 
attack  the  United  States. 

With  the  nations  of  the  Western  hemisphere  we  should 
cultivate  closer  relations,  and  for  our  common  prosperity 
and  advancement  we  should  invite  them  all  to  join  with  us  in 
an  agreement  that,  for  the  future,  all  international  troubles  in 
North  or  South  America  shall  be  adjusted  by  impartial  arbi 
tration,  and  not  by  arms.  This  project  was  part  of  the 
fixed  policy  of  President  Garfield's  administration,  and 
should  in  my  judgment  be  renewed.  Its  accomplishment 
on  this  continent  would  favorably  affect  the  nations  beyond 
the  sea,  and  thus  powerfully  contribute  at  no  distant  day  to 
the  universal  acceptance  of  the  philanthropic  and  Christian 
principle  of  arbitration.  The  effect  even  of  suggesting  it 
for  the  Spanish  American  States  has  been  most  happy,  and 
has  increased  the  confidence  of  those  people  in  our  friendly 
disposition.  It  fell  to  my  lot  as  Secretary  of  State  in  June, 
1881,  to  quiet  apprehension  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico  by 
giving  the  assurance  in  an  official  dispatch  that  "there  is  not 
the  faintest  desire  in  the  United  States  for  territorial  exten 
sion  south  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The  boundaries  of  the  two 
Republics  have  been  established  in  conformity  with  the  best 
jurisdictional  interests  of  both.  The  line  of  demarcation  is 
not  merely  conventional.  It  is  more.  It  separates  a  Span 
ish-American  people  from  a  Saxon-American  people.  It 
divides  one  great  nation  from  another  with  distinct  and 
natural  finality." 

We  seek  the  conquest  of  peace.  We  desire  to  extend 
our  commerce,  and  in  an  especial  degree  with  our  friends 
and  neighbors  on  this  continent.  We  have  not  improved 
our  relations  with  Spanish  America  ns  wisely  and  as  per- 
>Utently  a^  we  might  have  done.  For  more  than  a  genera- 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  515 

tion  the  sympathy  of  those  countries  has  been  allowed  to 
drift  away  from  us.  We  should  now  make  every  effort  to 
gain  their  friendship.  Our  trade  with  them  is  already 
large.  During  the  last  year  our  exchanges  in  the  Western 
hemisphere  amounted  to  $350,000,000 — nearly  one-fourth  of 
our  entire  foreign  commerce.  To  those  who  may  be  disposed 
to  underrate  the  value  of  our  trade  with  the  countries  of  North 
and  South  America,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  their  popu 
lation  is  nearly  or  quite  50,000,000 — and  that,  in  propor 
tion  to  aggregate  numbers,  we  import  nearly  double  as 
much  from  them  as  we  do  from  Europe.  But  the  result  of 
the  whole  American  trade  is  in  a  high  degree  unsatisfactory. 
The  imports  during  the  past  year  exceeded  $225,000,000, 
while  the  exports  were  less  than  $125,000,000 — showing  a 
balance  against  us  of  more  than  $100,000,000.  But  the 
money  does  not  go  to  Spanish  America.  We  send  large 
sums  to  Europe  in  coin,  or  its  equivalent,  to  pay  European 
manufacturers  for  the  goods  which  they  send  to  Spanish 
America.  We  are  but  paymasters  for  this  enormous 
amount  annually  to  European  factors — an  amount  which  is 
a  serious  draft,  in  every  financial  depression,  upon  our  re 
sources  of  specie. 

Cannot  this  condition  of  trade  in  great  part  be  changed? 
Cannot  the  market  for  our  products  be  greatly  enlarged? 
We  have  made  a  beginning  in  our  effort  to  improve  our 
trade  relations  with  Mexico,  and  we  should  not  be  content 
until  similar  and  mutually  advantageous  arrangements  have 
been  successively  made  with  every  nation  of  North  and 
South  America.  While  the  great  powers  of  Europe  are 
steadily  enlargirg  -.heir  colonial  domination  in  Asia  and 
Africa,  it  is  the  especial  province  of  this  country  to  improve 
and  expand  its  trade  with  the  nations  of  America.  No  field 


Ml',  r.LAINK    AND    LO(JAN   S 

promi-c^  so  much.  No  Held  has  been  cultivated  so  little 
Our  foreign  policy  should  be  an  American  policy  in  it! 
broadest  and  most  comprehensive  sense — a  policy  of  peace 
of  friendship,  of  commercial  enlargement. 

The  name  of  American,  which  belongs  to  us  in  our  na 
tional  capacity,  must  always  exalt  the  just  pride  of  patri 
otism.  Citizenship  of  the  republic  must  be  the  panoply 
and  safeguard  of  him  who  wears  it.  The  American  citizen, 
rich  or  poor,  native  or  naturalized,  white  or  colored,  must 
everywhere  walk  secure  in  his  personal  and  civil  rights, 
The  republic  should  never  accept  a  lesser  duty,  it  can  ncvei 
assume  a  nobler  one  than  the  protection  of  the  humblest 
man  who  owes  it  loyalty — protection  at  home,  and  protec 
tion  which  shall  follow  him  abroad,  into  whatever  land  he 
may  go  upon  a  lawful  errand. 

THE    SOUTHERN    STATES. 

I  recognize,  not  without  regret,  the  necessity  for  speak 
ing  of  two  sections  of  our  common  country.     But  the  re 
gret  diminishes  when  I  see  that  the  elements  which  separatee 
them  are  fast  disappearing.     Prejudices  have  yielded  am 
are  yielding,  while  a  growing  cordiality  warms  the  Southeri 
and  the  Northern    heart  alike.     Can  any  one  doubt  tha 
u°tween  the  sections  confidence  and  esteem  are  to-day  mor< 
larked  than  at  any  period  in  the  sixty  years  preceding  tin 
Section  of  President  Lincoln?     This  is  the  result  in  part  o 
fme  and  in  part  of  Republican  principles  applied  under  tin 
/avorable  conditions  of  uniformity.     It  would   be  a  grea 
.-alamity  to  change  these  influences  under  which  Southeri 
Commonwealths  are  learning  to  vindicate  civil  rights,  am 
adapting  themselves  to  the  conditions  of   political   tranquil 
Jity  and  industrial   progress.       If  there  be  occasional  am 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  517 

violent  outbreaks  in  the  South  against  this  peaceful  progress, 
the  public  opinion  of  the  country  regards  them  as  excep 
tional  and  hopefully  trusts  that  each  will  prove  the  last. 

The  South  needs  capital  and  occupation,  not  controversy. 
As  much  as  any  part  of  the  North,  the  South  needs  the  full 
protection  of  the  revenue  laws  which  the  Republican  party 
offers.  Some  of  the  Southern  States  have  already  entered 
upon  a  career  of  industrial  development  and  prosperity. 
These,  at  least,  should  not  lend  their  electoral  votes  to 
destroy  their  own  future. 

Any  effort  to  unite  the  Southern  States  upon  issues  that 
grow  out  of  the  memories  of  the  war  will  summon  the 
Northern  States  to  combine  in  the  assertion  of  that  national 
ity  which  was  their  inspiration  in  the  civil  struggle.  And 
thus  great  energies  which  should  be  united  in  a  common  in 
dustrial  development  will  be  wasted  in  hurtful  strife.  The 
Democratic  party  shows  itself  a,  foe  to  Southern  pros 
perity  by  always  invoking  and  urging  Southern  political 
consolidation.  Such  a  policy  quenches  the  rising  instinct  of 
patriotism  in  the  heart  of  the  Southern  youth;  it  revives 
and  stimulates  prejudice ;  it  substitutes  the  spirit  of  barbaric 
vengeance  for  the  love  of  peace,  progress  and  harmony. 

THE    CIVIL    SERVICE. 

The  general  character  of  the  civil  service  of  the  United 
States  under  all  administrations  has  been  honorable.  In 
the  one  supreme  test — the  collection  and  disbursement  of 
revenue — the  record  of  fidelity  has  never  been  surpassed  in 
any  nation.  With  the  almost  fabulous  sums  which  were  re 
ceived  and  paid  during  the  late  war,  scrupulous  integrity  was 
the  prevailing  rule.  Indeed,  throughout  that  trying  period 
it  can  be  said  to  the  honor  of  the  American  name,  that  un- 


,r>l,S  1JLAINK    AM)    IXX3  \N  '> 

faithfulness  niul  dishonesty  among  civil  officers  were  us 
rare  as  misconduct  tiud  cowardice  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  growth  of  the  country  has  continually  and  necessarily 
enlarged  the  civil  service,  until  now  it  includes  a  vast  body 
of  officers.  Rules  and  methods  of  appointment  which  pre 
vailed  when  the  number  was  smaller  have  been  found  insuf- 
ticient  and  impracticable,  and  earnest  efforts  have  been 
made  to  separate  the  great  mass  of  ministerial  officers  from 
partisan  influence  and  personal  control.  Impartiality  in  the 
mode  of  appointment  to  be  based  on  qualification,  and 
security  of  tenure  to  be  based  on  faithful  discharge  of  duty, 
are  the  two  ends  to  be  accomplished.  The  public  business 
will  be  aided  by  separating  the  legislative  branch  of  the 
(iovcrnment  from  all  control  of  appointments  and  the 
Kxeeutivc  Department  will  be  relieved  by  subjecting  ap 
pointments  to  fixed  rules  and  thus  removing  them  from 
the  caprice  of  favoritism.  But  there  should  be  rigid  ob 
servance  of  the  law  which  gives  in  all  cases  of  equal  com 
petency  the  preference  to  the  soldiers  who  risked  their  lives 
in  defense  of  the  Union. 

I  entered  Congress  in  1863,  and  in  a  somewhat  prolonged 
service  I  never  found  it  expedient  to  request  or  recom 
mend  the  removal  of  a  civil  officer  except  in  four  instances, 
and  then  for  non-political  reasons,  which  were  instantly 
conclusive  with  the  appointing  power.  The  officers  in  the 
District,  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1861  upon  the  recom 
mendation  of  my  predecessor,  served,  as  a  rule,  until  death 
or  resignation.  I  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  my  service 
the  test  of  competitive  examination  for  appointments  to 
We-t  Point,  and  maintained  it  so  long  as  I  had  the  right  by 
law  to  nominate  a  cadet.  In  the  case  of  many  officers  1 
found  that  the  present  law,  which  arbitrarily  limits  the 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  519 

term  of  the  commission,  offered  a  constant  temptation  to 
changes  for  mere  political  reasons.  I  have  publicly  ex 
pressed  the  belief  that  the  essential  modification  of  that 
law  would  be  in  many  respects  advantageous. 

My  observation  in  the  Department  of  State  confirmed  the 
conclusion  of  my  legislative  experience,  and  impressed  me 
with  the  conviction  that  the  rule  of  impartial  appointment 
might  with  advantage  be  carried  beyond  any  existing  pro 
vision  of  the  civil-service  law.  It  should  be  applied  to  ap 
pointments  in  the  consular  service.  Consuls  should  be 
commercial  sentinels — encircling  the  globe  with  watchful 
ness  for  their  country's  interests.  Their  intelligence  and 
competency  become,  therefore,  matters  of  great  public  con 
cern.  No  man  should  be  appointed  to  an  American  consu 
late  who  is  not  well  instructed  in  the  history  and  resources 
of  his  own  country,  and  in  the  requirements  and  language 
of  commerce  in  the  country  to  which  he  is  sent.  The  same 
rule  should  be  applied  even  more  rigidly  to  Secretaries  of 
Legation  in  our  diplomatic  service.  The  people  have  the 
right  to  the  most  efficient  agents  in  the  discharge  of  public 
business,  and  the  appointing  power  should  regard  this  as  the 
prior  and  ulterior  consideration. 

THE   MORMON     QUESTION. 

Religious  liberty  is  the  right  of  every  citizen  of  the  repub 
lic.  Congress  is  forbiden  by  the  Constitution  to  make  any 
law  "respecting  the  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting 
the  free  exercise  thereof."  For  a  century,  under  this 
guarantee,  Protestant  and  Catholic,  Jew  and  Gentile,  have 
worshiped  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience.  But 
religious  liberty  must  not  be  perverted  to  the  justification 
of  offenses  against  the  law.  A  religious  sect,  strongly  in- 


JJLAIXE  AM>  LOGANS 

trenched  in  one  of  the  Territories  of  the  Union  and  spread 
ing  rapidly  into  four  other  Territories,  claims  the  right  to 
destroy  the  great  safeguard  and  muniment  of  social  order, 
and  to  practice  as  a  religious  privilege  that  which  is  a  crime 
punished  with  severe  penalty  in  every  State  of  the  Union. 
The  sacredness  and  unity  of  the  family  must  be  preserved 
as  the  foundation  of  all  civil  government,  as  the  source  of 
orderly  administration,  as  the  surest  guarantee  of  moral 
purity. 

The  claim  of  the  Mormons  that  they  are  divinely  author 
ized  to  practice  polygamy  should  no  more  be  admitted  than 
the  claim  of  certain  heathen  tribes,  if  they  should  come 
among  us,  to  continue  the  rite  of  human  sacrifice.  The  law 
does  not  interfere  with  what  a  man  believes;  it  takes  cog 
nizance  only  of  what  he  does.  As  citizens,  the  Mormons 
are  entitled  to  the  same  civil  rights  as  others  and  to  these 
they  must  be  confined.  Polygamy  can  never  receive  na 
tional  sanction  or  toleration  by  admitting  the  community  that 
upholds  it  as  a  State  in  the  Union.  Like  others,  the  Mor 
mons  must  learn  that  the  liberty  of  the  individual  ceases 
where  the  rights  of  society  begin. 

OUR  CURRENCY. 

The  people  of  the  United  States,  though  often  urged  and 
tempted,  have  never  seriously  contemplated  the  recognition 
of  any  other  money  than  gold  and  silver — and  currency  di 
rectly  convertible  into  them.  They  have  not  done  so,  they 
will  not  do  so,  under  any  necessity  less  pressing  than  that 
of  desperate  war.  The  one  special  requisite  for  the  com 
pletion  of  our  monetary  system  is  the  fixing  of  the  rela 
tive  values  of  silver  and  gold.  The  large  use  of  silver  as 
the  money  of  account  among  Asiatic  nations,  taken  in  con- 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  521 

nection  with  the  increasing  commerce  of  the  world,  gives 
the  weightiest  reasons  for  an  international  agreement  in  the 
premises.  Our  government  should  not  cease  to  urge  this 
measure  until  a  common  standard  of  value  shall  be  reached 
and  established — a  standard  that  shall  enable  the  United 
States  to  use  the  silver  from  its  mines  as  an  auxiliary  to 
gold  in  settling  the  balances  of  commercial  exchange. 

DO  O 

THE  PUBLIC  LANDS. 

The  strength  of  the  republic  is  increased  by  the  multipli 
cation  of  landholders.  Our  laws  should  look  to  the  judi 
cious  encouragement  of  actual  settlers  on  the  public  domain, 
which  should  henceforth  be  held  as  a  sacred  trust  for  the 
benefit  of  those  seeking  homes.  The  tendency  to  consoli 
date  large  tracts  of  land  in  the  ownership  of  individuals  or 
corporations  should,  with  proper  regard  to  vested  rights, 
be  discouraged.  One  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  in 
the  hands  of  one  man  is  far  less  profitable  to  the  nation  in 
every  way  than  when  its  ownership  is  divided  among  1,000 
men.  The  evil  of  permitting  large  tracts  of  the  national 
domain  to  be  consolidated  and  controlled  by  the  few  against 
the  many  is  enhanced  when  the  persons  controlling  it  are 
aliens.  It  is  but  fair  that  the  public  land  should  be  dis 
posed  of  only  to  actual  settlers  and  to  those  who  are  citi 
zens  of  the  republic,  or  willing  to  become  so. 

OUR    SHIPPING    INTERESTS. 

Among  our  national  interests  one  languishes — the  foreign 
carrying-trade.  It  was  very  seriously  crippled  in  our  civil 
war,  and  another  blow  was  given  to  it  in  the  general  substn 
tution  of  steam  for  sail  in  ocean  traffic.  With  a  frontage 
on  the  two  great  oceans,  with  a  freightage  larger  than  that 


522  BLAINE    AM)    LOGAN'S 

)f  any  other  nation,  we  have  every  inducement  to  restore 
)ur  navigation.  Yet  the  government  has  hitherto  refused 
ts  help.  A  small  share  of  the  encouragement  given  by  the 
government  to  railways  and  to  manufactures,  and  a  small 
jhare  of  the  capital  and  the  zeal  given  by  our  citizens  to 
;hose  enterprises  would  have  carried  our  ships  to  every  sea 
ind  to  every  port.  A  law  just  enacted  removes  some  of 
;he  burdens  upon  our  navigation  and  inspires  hope  that  this 
*reat  interest  may  at  last  receive  its  due  share  of  atten- 
;ion.  All  efforts  in  this  direction  should  receive  encour 
agement. 

SACREDNESS    OF    THE    BALLOT. 

This  survey  of  our  condition  as  a  nation  reminds  us  that 
material  prosperity  is  but  a  mockery  if  it  does  not  tend  to 
i reserve  the  liberty  of  the  people.  A  free  ballot  is  the  safe 
guard  of  republican  institutions,  without  which  no  national 
welfare  is  assured.  A  popular  election,  honestly  conducted, 
3inbodies  the  very  majesty  of  true  government.  Ten  mil- 
ions  of  voters  desire  to  take  part  in  the  pending  contest. 
Che  safety  of  the  republic  rests  upon  the  integrity  of  the 
Dallot — upon  the  security  of  suffrage  to  the  citizen.  To 
deposit  a  fraudulent  vote  is  no  worse  a  crime  against  con 
stitutional  liberty  than  to  obstruct  the  deposit  of  an  honest 
vote.  He  who  corrupts  suffrage  strikes  at  the  very  root  of 
Free  government.  He  is  the  arch-enemy  of  the  republic. 
He  forgets  that  in  trampling  upon  the  rights  of  others  he 
Fatally  imperils  his  own  rights.  "It  is  a  good  land  which 
:he  Lord  our  God  doth  give  us,"  but  we  can  maintain  our 
leritage  only  by  guarding  with  vigilance  the  source  of  pop 
ular  power.  I  am,  with  great  respect, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  5' 

GENERAL  LOGAN'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 

WASHINGTON,  July  21,  1884. 

The  Hon.  John  B.  Henderson  and  others  of  the  commi 
tee,  etc.,  etc. : 

DEAR  SIR — Having  received  from  you  on  the  24th  of  Jui 
the  official  notification  of  rny  nomination  by  the  Nation 
Republican  Convention  as  the  Republican  candidate  f 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  and  considering  it 
be  the  duty  of  every  man  devoting  himself  to  the  pub! 
service  to  assume  any  position  to  which  he  may  be  call( 
by  the  voice  of  his  countrymen,  I  accept  the  nominatic 
with  a  grateful  heart  and  a  deep  sense  of  its  responsibi 
ties;  and,  if  elected,  shall  endeavor  to  discharge  the  duti 
of  the  office  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 

This  honor,  as  is  well  understood,  was  wholly  unsoug 
by  me.  That  it  was  tendered  by  the  representatives  of  tl 
party,  in  a  manner  so  flattering,  will  serve  to  lighten  wha 
ever  labors  I  may  be  called  upon  to  perform. 

Although  the  variety  of  subjects  covered  in  the  very  e 
cellent  and  vigorous  declaration  of  principles  adopted  I 
the  Convention  prohibits,  upon  an  occasion  calling  for  bre 
ity  of  expression,  that  full  elaboration  of  which  they  a 
susceptible,  I  avail  myself  of  party  usage  to  signify  my  a 
proval  of  the  various  resolutions  of  the  platform,  and  to  di 
cuss  them  briefly. 

PROTECTION   TO   AMERICAN   LABOR. 

The  resolutions  of  the  platform  declaring  for  a  levy  < 
such  duties  "as  to  afford  security  to  our  diversified  indu 
tries,  and  protection  to  the  jnghts  and  wages  of  the  labore 


52-i  r. i.  \IM-I  AND  LOGAN'S 

to  tho  ond  that  fu-fm>  and  intelligent  labor,  as  well  as  capi 
tal,  may  have  its  just  award,  and  the  laboring  man  his  full 
share  in  the  national  prosperity,"  meets  my  hearty  ap 
proval. 

If  there  be  a  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth  which  might, 
if  it  were  a  desirable  thing,  build  a  wall  upon  its  every 
boundary  line,  deny  communion  to  all  the  world,  and  pro 
ceed  to  live  upon  its  own  resources  and  productions,  that 
nation  is  the  United  States.  There  is  hardly  a  legitimate 
necessity  of  civilized  communities  which  cannot  be  produced 
from  the  extraordinary  resources  of  our  several  States  and 
Territories,  with  their  manufactories,  mines,  farms,  tim 
ber-lands,  and  water  ways.  This  circumstance,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  fact  that  our  form  of  government  is 
entirely  unique  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  makes  it 
utterly  absurd  to  institute  comparisons  between  our  own 
'economic  systems  and  those  of  other  governments,  and  es 
pecially  to  attempt  to  borrow  systems  from  them.  We 
stand  alone  in  our  circumstances,  our  forces,  our  possibili 
ties,  and  our  aspirations. 

In  all  successful  government  it  is  a  prime  requisite  that 
capital  and  labor  should  be  upon  the  best  terms,  and  that 
both  enjoy  the  highest  attainable  prosperity.  If  there  l>e  a 
disturbance  of  the  just  balance  between  them,  one  or  the 
other  suffers,  and  dissatisfaction  follows,  which  is  harmful 
to  both. 

The  lessons  furnished  by  the  comparatively  short  history 
of  our  own  national  life  have  been  too  much  overlooked  by 
our  people.  The  fundamental  article  in  the  old  Democratic 
creed  proclaimed  almost  absolute  free  trade,  and  this,  too, 
no  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  The  low  con 
dition  of  our  national  credit,  the  financial  and  business  un- 


LETTERS  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  525 

certainties  and  general  lack  of  prosperity  under  that  system, 
can  be  remembered  by  every  man  now  in  middle  life* 

Although  in  the  great  number  of  reforms  instituted  by 
the  Republican  party  sufficient  credit  has  not  been  publicly 
awarded  to  that  of  tariff  reform,  its  benefits  have,  neverthe 
less,  been  felt  throughout  the  land.  The  principle  under* 
lying  this  measure  has  been  in  process  of  gradual  develop 
ment  by  the  Republican  party  during  the  comparatively 
brief  period  of  its  power,  and  to-day  a  portion  of  its  anti 
quated  Democratic  opponents  make  unwilling  concession  to 
the  correctness  of  the  doctrine  of  an  equitably  adjusted 
protective  tariff,  by  following  slowly  in  its  footsteps, 
though  a  very  long  way  in  the  rear. 

The  principle  involved  is  one  of  no  great  obscurity,  and 
can  be  readily  comprehended  by  any  intelligent  person  calmly 
reflecting  upon  it.  The  political  and  social  systems  of  some 
of  our  trade-competing  nations  have  created  working  classes 
miserable  in  the  extreme.  They  receive  the  merest  stipend 
for  their  daily  toil,  and  in  the  great  expense  of  the  necessi 
ties  of  life,  are  deprived  of  those  comforts  of  clothing, 
housing,  and  health-producing  food  with  which  wholesome 
mental  and  social  recreation  can  alone  make  existence  happy 
and  desirable. 

Now,  if  the  products  of  those  countries  are  to  be  placed 
in  our  markets  alongside  of  American  products,  either  the 
American  capitalist  must  suffer  in  his  legitimate  profit,  or 
he  must  make  the  American  laborer  suffer  in  the  attempt 
to  compete  with  the  species  of  labor  above  referred  to. 
In  the  case  of  a  substantial  reduction  of  pay,  there  can  be 
no  compensating  advantages  for  the  American  laborer,  be 
cause  the  articles  of  daily  consumption  which  he  uses — with 
the  exception  of  articles  not  produced  in  the  United  States, 


:>;_>i;  ULAINK    AM)    UHiAN  S 

and  ea<y  of  being  specially  provided  for,  as  coffee  and  tea 
— arc  grown  in  our  own  country,  and  would  not  be  affected 
in  pr'uv  by  a  lowering  in  duties.  Therefore,  while  he  would 
receive  lc<s  for  his  labor,  his  cost  of  living  would  not  be 
decreased,  l>e'mg  practically  placed  upon  the  pay  of  the 
European  laborer,  our  own  would  be  deprived  of  facilities 
for  educating  and  sustaining  his  family  respectably;  he 
would  be  shorn  of  the  proper  opportunities  of  self  improve 
inent,  and  his  value  as  a  citizen,  charged  with  a  portion  of 
the  obligations  of  government,  would  be  lessened;  the 
moral  tone  of  the  laboring  class  would  suffer,  and  in  turn 
the  interests  of  capital,  and  the  well-being  of  orderly  citi 
zens  in  general  would  be  menaced,  while  one  evil  would 
react  upon  another  until  there  would  be  a  general  disturb 
ance  of  the  whole  community.  The  true  problem  of  a  good 
and  stable  government  is  how  to  infuse  prosperity  among 
all  classes  of  people — the  manufacturer,  the  farmer,  the 
mechanic,  and  the  laborer  alike.  Such  prosperity  is  a  pre 
ventive  of  crime,  a  security  of  capital,  and  the  very  best 
guarantee  of  general  peace  and  happiness. 

The  obvious  policy  of  our  government  is  to  protect  both 
capital  and  labor  by  a  proper  imposition  of  duties.  This 
protection  should  extend  to  every  article  of  American  pro 
duction  which  goes  to  build  up  the  general  prosperity  of 
our  people.  The  National  Convention,  in  view  of  the  spec 
ial  dangers  manacing  the  wool  interests  of  the  United 
States,  deemed  it  wise  to  adopt  a  separate  resolution  on 
the  subject  of  its  proper  protection.  This  industry  is  a 
very  large  and  important  one.  The  necessary  legislation  to 
sustain  this  industry  upon  a  prosperous  basis  should  be 
extended. 

No  one  realizes  more  fully  than  myself  the  great  delicacy 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  527 

and  difficulty  of  adjusting  a  tariff  so  nicely  and  equitably 
as  to  protect  every  home  industry,  sustain  every  class  of 
American  labor,  promote  to  the  highest  point  our  great  agri 
cultural  interests,  and  at  the  same  time  give  to  one  and  all 
the  advantages  pretaining  to  foreign  productions  not  in 
competition  with  our  own,  thus  not  only  building  up  our 
foreign  commerce,  but  taking  measures  to  carry  it  in  our 
own  bottoms. 

Difficult  as  this  work  appears,  and  really  is,  it  is  suscep 
tible  of  accomplishment  by  patient  and  intelligent  labor,  and 
to  no  hands  can  it  be  committed  with  as  great  assurance  of 
success  as  to  those  of  the  Republican  party. 

OUR  MONETARY  SYSTEM. 

The  Republican  party  is  the  indisputable  author  of  a 
financial  and  monetary  system  which  it  is  safe  to  say  has 
never  before  been  equaled  by  that  of  any  other  nation. 

Under  the  operation  of  our  system  of  finance  the  country 
was  safely  carried  through  an  extended  and  expensive  war, 
with  a  national  credit  which  has  risen  higher  and  higher 
with  each  succeeding  year,  until  now  the  credit  of  the  United 
States  is  surpassed  by  that  of  no  other  nation,  while  its  se 
curities,  at  a  constantly-increasing  premium,  are  eagerly 
sought  after  by  investors  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Our  system  of  currency  is  most  admirable  in  construc 
tion.  While  all  the  conveniences  of  a  bill  circulation  attach 
to  it,  every  dollar  of  paper  represents  a  dollar  of  the  world's 
money  standards,  and  as  long  as  the  just  and  wise  policy  of 
the  Republican  party  is  continued  there  can  be  no  impair 
ment  of  the  national  credit.  Therefore,  under  present  laws 
relating  thereto,  it  will  bo  impossible  for  any  man  to  lose 


feLAixi:  AND  LOGAN'S 


a  penny  in  the  bonds  or  bills  of  the  United  States  or  in  the 
bills  of  the  national  banks. 

The  advantage  of  having  a  bank  note  in  the  house  which 
will  be  as  good  in  the  morning  as  it  was  the  night  before 
should  be  appreciated  by  all. 

The  convertibility  of  the  currency  should  be  maintained 
intact,  and  the  establishment  of  an  international  standard 
among  all  commercial  nations,  fixing  the  relative  values  of 
gold  and  silver  coinage,  would  be  a  measure  of  peculiar 
advantage. 

INTER-STATE,  FOREIGN    COMMERCE    AND    FOREIGN   RELATIONS. 

The  subjects  embraced  in  the  resolutions  respectively 
looking  to  the  promotion  of  our  inter-state  and  foreign 
commerce  and  to  the  matter  of  our  foreign  relations  are 
fraught  with  the  greatest  importance  to  our  people. 

In  respect  to  inter-state  commerce,  there  is  much  to  be 
desired  in  the  wray  of  equitable  rates  and  facilities  of  trans 
portation,  that  commerce  may  flow  freely  between  the 
States  themselves,  diversity  of  industries  and  employments 
be  promoted  in  all  sections  of  our  country,  and  that  the 
great  granaries  and  manufacturing  establishments  of  the 
interior  may  be  enabled  to  send  thefr  products  to  the  sea 
board  for  shipment  to  foreign  countries,  relieved  of  vexa 
tious  restrictions  and  discriminations  in  matters  of  which 
it  may  empathically  be  said,  "time  fg  money,"  and  also  of 
unjust  charges  upon  articles  destinexl  to  meet  close  compe 
tition  from  the  products  of  other  parts  of  the  world. 

As  to  our  foreign  commerce,  the  onormous  growth  of  our 
industries,  and  our  surprising  production  of  cereals  and 
other  necessities  of  life,  imperatively  require  that  immedi 
ate  and  effective  means  be  taken  through  peaceful,  orderly, 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  529 

and  conservative  methods  to  open  markets  which  have 
been  and  are  now  monopolized  largely  by  other  nations* 
This  more  particularly  relates  to  our  sister  republics  of 
Spanish  America,  as  also  to  our  friends  the  people  of  the 
Brazilian  empire. 

The  republics  of  Spanish  America  are  allied  to  us  by  the 
very  closest  and  warmest  feelings,  based  upon  similarity  of 
institutions  and  government,  common  aspirations,  and  mu 
tual  hopes.  The  "Great  Republic,"  as  they  proudly  term 
the  United  States,  is  looked  'upon  by  their  people  with  af 
fectionate  admiration  and  as  the  model  for  them  to  build 
upon,  and  we  should  cultivate  between  them  and  ourselves 
closer  commercial  relations,  which  will  bind  all  together  by 
the  ties  of  friendly  intercourse  and  mutual  advantage. 
Further  than  this,  being  small  commonwealths,  in  the  mili 
tary  and  naval  sense  of  the  European  powers,  they  look  to 
us,  at  least,  as  a  moral  defender  against  a  system  of  terri 
torial  and  other  encroachments,  which,  aggressive  in  the  past, 
has  not  been  abandoned  at  this  day.  Diplomacy  and  in 
trigue  have  done  much  more  to  wrest  the  commerce  of 
Spanish  America  from  the  United  States  than  has  legiti 
mate  commercial  competition. 

Politically  we  should  be  bound  to  the  republics  of  our 
continent  by  the  closest  ties,  and  communication  by  ships 
and  railroads  should  be  encouraged  to  the  fullest  possible 
extent  consistent  with  a  wise  and  conservative  public  pol 
icy.  Above  all,  we  should  be  upon  such  terms  of  friend 
ship  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  national  misunder 
standing  between  ourselves  and  any  of  the  members  of  the 
American  Republican  family.  The  best  method  to  promote 
uninterrupted  peace  between  one  and  all  would  lie  in  the 
meeting  of  a  general  conference  or  congress,  whereby  an 


KLAIXK    AND    LOC!AX*S 

airreomont  to  submit  all  international  differences  to  the 
peaceful  decision  of  friendly  arbitration  might  be  reached. 
An  agreement  of  this  kind  would  give  to  our  sister  re 
publics  confidence  in  each  other  and  in  us,  closer  commu 
nication  would  ensue,  reciprocally  advantageous  commer 
cial  treaties  might  be  made,  whereby  much  of  the  commerce 
which  now  Hows  across  the  Atlantic  would  seek  its  legiti 
mate  channels,  and  inure  to  the  greater  prosperity  of  all 
American  commonwealths.  The  full  advantages  of  a  pol 
icy  of  this  nature  could  not  be  stated  in  a  brief  discussion 
like  the  present. 

FOREIGN    POLITICAL    DELATIONS. 

The  United  States  has  grown  to  be  a  government  repre 
senting  more  than  fifty  million  people,  and  in  every  sense, 
excepting  that  of  mere  naval  power,  is  one  of  the  first  nations 
of  the  world.  As  such,  its  citizenship  should  ho  valuable, 
entitling  its  possessor  to  protection  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  that  our  government 
should  construct  enormous  fleets  of  approved  ironclads  and 
maintain  a  commensurate  body  of  seamen  in  order  to  place 
ourselves  on  a  war  footing  with  the  military  and  naval  pow 
ers  of  Europe.  Such  a  course  would  not  be  compatible 
with  the  peaceful  policy  of  our  country,  though  it  seems 
absurd  that  we  have  not  the  effective  means  to  repel  a  wan 
ton  invasion  of  our  coast  and  give  protection  to  our  coast 
towns  and  cities  against  any  power.  The  great  moral  force 
of  our  country  is  so  universally  recognized  as  to  render  an 
appeal  to  arms  by  us,  either  in  protection  of  our  citizen*; 
abroad  or  in  recognition  of  any  just  international  right,  quite 
Improbable.  What  we  most  need  in  this  direction  is  a  firm 
and  vigorous  assertion  of  every  right  and  privilege  belonging 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  531 

to  our  government  or  its  citizens,  as  well  as  an  equally  firm 
assertion  of  the  rights  and  privileges  belonging  to  the  gen 
eral  family  of  American  Republics  situated  upon  this  conti 
nent,  when  opposed,  if  ever  they  should  be,  by  the  different 
systems  of  government  upon  another  continent. 

An  appeal  to  the  right  by  such  a  government  as  ours  could 
not  be  disregarded  by  any  civilized  nation.  In  the  treaty  of 
Washington  we  led  the  world  to  the  means  of  escape  from 
the  horrors  of  war,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  era  when 
all  international  differences  shall  be  decided  by  peaceful 
arbitration  is  not  far  off. 

EQUAL    RIGHTS     OF    CITIZENSHIP. 

The  central  idea  of  a  republican  form  of  government  is 
the  rule  of  the  whole  people  as  opposed  to  the  other  forms 
which  rest  upon  a  privileged  class. 

Our  forefathers,  in  the  attempt  to  erect  a  new  govern 
ment  which  might  represent  the  advanced  thought  of  the 
world  at  that  period  upon  the  subject  of  governmental  re 
form,  adopted  the  idea  of  the  people's  sovereignty,  and  thus 
laid  the  basis  of  our  present  republic.  While  technically  a 
government  of  the  people,  it  was  in  strictness  only  a  govern 
ment  of  a  portion  of  the  people,  excluding  from  all  participa 
tion  acertaiu  other  portion,  held  in  a  condition  of  absolute, 
despotic,  and  hopeless  servitude,  the  parallel  to  which,  for 
tunately,  does  not  now  exist  in  any  modern  Christian  nation. 

With  the  culmination,  however,  of  another  cycle  of  ad 
vanced  thought,  the  American  Republic  suddenly  assumed 
the  full  character  of  a  government  of  the  whole  people, 
and  4,000,000  human  creatures  emerged  from  the  condition 
of  bondsmen  to  the  full  status  of  freemen,  theoretically 
invested  with  the  same  civil  and  political  rights  possessed 


BLAINK   AM)    LOG  AN 'S 

by  their  former  masters.  The  subsequent  legislation  which 
iruranteed  by  every  legal  title  the  citizenship  and  full  equal 
ity  before  the  law  in  all  respects  of  this  previously  disfran 
chised  people,  amply  covers  the  requirements  and  secures 
to  them,  so  far  as  legislation  can,  the  privileges  of  Ameri 
can  citixenship.  But  the  disagreeable  fact  of  the  case  is, 
that  while,  theoretically,  we  are  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  gov 
ernment  of  the  whole  people,  practically  we  are  almost  as 
far  from  it  as  we  were  in  the  ante-bellum  days  of  the  re 
public.  There  are  but  a  few  leading  and  indisputable  facts 
which  cover  the  whole  statement  of  the  case.  In  many  of 
the  Southern  States  the  colored  population  is  in  large  cx- 
of  the  \\hite.  The  colored  people  are  Republicans,  as 
are  al>o  a  considerable  portion  of  the  white  people.  The 
remaining  portion  of  the  latter  are  Democrats.  In  face  of 
this  incontestible  truth  these  States  invariably  return  Demo 
cratic  majorities.  In  other  States  of  the  South  the  colored 
people,  although  not  a  majority,  form  a  very  considerable 
body  of  the  population,  and,  with  the  white  Republicans, 
an1  numerically  in  excos  of  the  Democrats,  yet  precisely 
the  same  political  result  obtains — the  Democratic  party  in 
variably  carrying  the  elections.  It  is  not  even  thought  ad 
visable  to  allow  an  occasional  or  unimportant  election  to  be 
carried  by  the  Republicans  as  a  "  blind"  or  as  a  stroke  of 
finesse. 

Careful  and  impartial  investigation  has  shown  these  re 
sults  to  follow  the  systematic  exercise  of  physical  intimida 
tion  and  violence,  conjoined  with  the  most  shameful  devices 
ever  practiced  iii  tho  name  of  free  elections.  So  confirmed 
}\i\<  this  result  become  that  wo  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  extraordinary  political  fact  that  the  Democratic  party 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  533 

of  the  South  relies  almost  entirely  upon  the  methods  stated 
for  its  success  in  national  elections. 

This  unlawful  perversion  of  the  popular  franchise,  which 
I  desire  to  state  dispassionately,  and  in  a  manner  comport 
ing  with  the  proper  dignity  of  the  occasion,  is  one  of  deep 
gravity  to  the  American  people — in  a  double  sense. 

First.  It  is  in  violation,  open,  direct  and  flagrant,  of  the 
primary  principle  upon  which  our  government  is  supposed 
to  rest,  viz. :  that  the  control  of  the  government  is  partici 
pated  in  by  all  legally  qualified  citizens,  in  accordance  with 
the  plan  of  popular  government,  that  majorities  must  rule 
in  the  decision  of  all  questions. 

Second.  It  is  in  violation  of  the  rights  and  interests  of  the 

O 

States  wherein  are  particularly  centered  the  great  wealth  and 
industries  of  the  nation,  and  which  pay  an  overwhelming 
portion  of  the  national  taxes.  The  immense  aggregation  of 
interests  embraced  within,  and  the  enormously  greater  pop 
ulation  of  these  other  States  of  the  Union,  are  subjected 
every  four  years  to  the  dangers  of  a  wholly  fraudulent  show 
of  numerical  strength. 

Under  this  system  minorities  actually  attempt  to  direct 
the  course  of  national  affairs,  and  though  up  to  this  time 
success  has  not  attended  their  efforts  to  elect  a  President, 
yet  success  has  been  so  perilously  imminent  as  to  encourage 
a  repetition  of  the  effort  at  each  quadrennial  election,  and  to 
subject  the  interests  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of  our 
people,  North  and  South,  to  the  hazards  of  illegal  subver 
sion. 

The  stereotyped  argument  in  refutation  of  these  plain 
truths  is,  that  if  the  Republican  element  was  really  in  the 
majority,  they  could  not  be  deprived  of  their  rights  and 
privileges  by  a  minority;  but  neither  statistics  of  population. 


;..il  BLAIM:  AND  LOGAN'fl 

nor  the  unavoidable  logic  of  the  situation,  can  be  overrid 
den,  or  ex-aped.  The  colored  people  of  the  South  have 
iv. -culls-  emerged  from  the  bondage  of  their  present  political 
oppiv-x)r>:  they  have  had  but  few  of  the  advantages  of  edu- 
ucation  which  might  enable  them  to  compete  with  the  whites. 
As  1  have  heretofore  maintained,  in  order  to  achieve  the 
ideal  perfect  ion  of  a  popular  government,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  masses  should  be  educated.  This  propo- 
>ition  applies  itself  with  full  force  to  the  colored  people  of 
the  South.  They  must  have  better  educational  advantages, 
and  thus  be  enabled  to  become  the  intellectual  peers  of  their 
white  brethren,  as  many  of  them  undoubtedly  already  are. 
A  liberal  .school  system  should  be  provided  for  the  rising 
generation  of  the  South,  and  the  colored  people  be  made  as 
capable  of  exen-ising  the  duties  of  electors  as  the  white  peo 
ple.  In  the  meantime  it  is  the  duty  of  the  National  Govern 
ment  to  go  beyond  resolutions  and  declarations  on  the  sub- 
jeei ,  and  to  take  such  action  as  may  lie  in  its  power  to  secure 
the  abx)lute  freedom  of  national  elections  everywhere,  to 
the  end  that  our  Congress  may  cease  to  contain  members 
representing  fictitious  majorities  of  their  people,  thus  mis 
directing  the  popular  will  concerning  national  legislation, 
and  especially  to  the  end  that,  in  presidential  contests. 
the  great  bu-inos  and  other  interests  of  the  country  may 
not  be  placed  in  fear  and  trembling  lest  an  unscrupulous 
minority  should  succeed  in  stifling  the  wishes  of  the  major 
ity.  In  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  last  resolution  of 
the  Chicago  platform,  measures  should  be  taken  at  once  to 
remedy  this  great  evil. 

FOIM:I<;\  IM.MK; RATION. 

Under  our  liberal  institutions  the  subjects  andciti/ensof 
every  nation  have-   been   \\elcomed  to  a  home  in  our  mid>t, 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  535 

:nd  on  a  compliance  with  our  laws  to  a  co-operation  in  our 
[overiiment.  While  it  is  the  policy  of  the  Republican 
larty  to  encourage  the  oppressed  of  other  nations  and  offer 
hem  facilities  for  becoming  useful  and  intelligent  citizens 
i  the  legal  definition  of  the  term,  the  party  has  never  con- 
emplated  the  admission  of  a  class  of  servile  people  who  arc 
ot  only  unable  to  comprehend  our  institutions,  but  indis- 
osed  to  become  a  part  of  our  national  family  or  to  embrace 
ny  higher  civilization  than  their  own.  To  admit  such  im- 
ligrants  would  be  only  to  throw  a  retarding  element  into 
ae  very  path  of  our  progress.  Our  legislation  should  be 
mply  protective  against  this  danger,  and  if  not  sufficiently 
now  should  be  made  so  to  the  full  extent  allowed  by  our 
reaties  with  friendly  powers. 

THE  CIVIL  SERVICE. 

The  subject  of  civil  service  administration  is  a  problem 
lat  has  occupied  the  earnest  thought  of  statesmen  for  a 
umber  of  years  past,  and  the  record  will  show  that  toward 
s  solution  many  results  of  a  valuable  and  comprehensive 
laracter  have  been  attained  by  the  Republican  party  since 
s  accession  to  power.  In  the  partisan  warfare  made  upon 
le  latter  with  the  view  of  weakening  it  in  the  public  con- 
ience  a  great  deal  has  been  alleged  in  connection  with  the 
mse  of  the  civil  service,  the  party  making  the  indiscrimi- 
ite  charges  seeming  to  have  entirely  forgotten  that  it  was 
ider  the  full  sway  of  the  Democratic  organization  that  the 
.otto  "To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils"  became  a  cardinal 
•tide  in  the  Democratic  creed. 

With  the  determination  to  elevate  our  govermental  ad- 
inistration  to  a  standard  of  justice,  excellence  and  public 
.orality,  the  Republican  party  has  sedulously  endeavored 


53<)  ELAINE    AND    LOGAN'S 

to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  system  which  shall  reach  the 
kighest  perfection  under  the  plastic  hand  of  time  and  accu 
mulating  experience.  The  problem  is  one  of  far  greater 
intricacy  than  appears  upon  its  superficial  consideration,  and 
embraces  the  sub-questions  of  how  to  avoid  the  abuses  pos 
sible  to  the  lodgment  of  an  immense  number  of  appoint 
ments  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  ;  of  how  to  give  en 
couragement  to  and  provoke  emulation  in  the  various  gov- 
erment  employes,  in  order  that  they  may  strive  for  pro 
ficiency  and  rest  their  hopes  of  advancement  upon  the 
attributes  of  official  merit,  good  conduct  and  exemplary 
honesty  ;  and  how  best  to  avoid  the  evils  of  creating  a  priv 
ileged  class  in  the  government  service,  who,  in  imitation 
of  European  prototypes  may  gradually  lose  all  proficiency 
and  value  in  the  belief  that  they  possess  a  life-calling,  only 
to  be  taken  away  in  case  of  some  flagrant  abuse. 

The  thinking,  earnest  men  of  the  Republican  party  have 
made  no  mere  wordy  demonstration  upon  this  subject ;  but 
they  have  endeavored  to  quietly  perform  that  which  their 
opponents  are  constantly  promising  without  performing. 
Under  Republican  rule  the  result  has  been  that,  without 
engrafting  any  of  the  objectionable  features  of  the  Euro 
pean  systems  upon  our  own,  there  has  been  a  steady  and 
even  rapid  elevation  of  the  civil  service  in  all  of  its  depart 
ments,  until  it  can  now  be  stated,  without  fear  of  successful 
contradiction,  that  the  service  is  more  just,  more  efficient 
and  purer  in  all  of  its  features  than  ever  before  since  the 
establishment  of  our  government  ;  and  if  defects  still 
exist  in  our  system,  the  country  can  safely  rely  upon  the 
Republican  party  as  the  most  efficient  instrument  for  their 
removal. 


LETTERS    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  537 

I  am  in  favor  of  the  highest  standard  of  excellence  in 
the  administration  of  the  civil  service,  and  will  lend  my 
best  efforts  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  greatest  attainable 
perfection  in  this  branch  of  our  service. 

THE  REMAINING  TWIN  RELIC  OF    BARBARISM. 

The  Eepublican  party  came  into  existence  in  ,a  crusade 
against  the  Democratic  institutions  of  slavery  and  polygamy. 

The  first  of  these  has  been  buried  beneath  the  embers  of 
civil  war.  The  party  should  continue  its  efforts  until  the  re 
maining  iniquity  shall  disappear  from  our  civilization  under 
the  force  of  faithfully  executed  laws. 

There  are  other  subjects  of  importance  which  I  would 
gladly  touch  upon  did  space  permit.  I  limit  myself  to 
saying  that,  while  there  should  be  the  most  rigid  economy 
of  governmental  administration,  there  should  be  no  self- 
defeating  parsimony  either  in  our  domestic  or  foreign  ser 
vice.  Official  dishonesty  should  be  promptly  and  relent 
lessly  punished.  Our  obligations  to  the  defenders  of  our 
country  should  never  be  forgotten,  and  the  liberal  system 
of  pensions  provided  by  the  Republican  party  should  not  be 
imperiled  by  adverse  legislation.  The  law  establishing  a 
Labor  Bureau,  through  which  the  interests  of  labor  can  be 
placed  in  an  organized  condition,  I  regard  as  a  salutary  meas 
ure.  The  eight  hour  law  should  be  enforced  as  rigidly  as 
any  other.  We  should  increase  our  navy  to  a  degree  en 
abling  us  to  amply  protect  our  coast  lines,  our  commerce, 
and  to  give  us  a  force  in  foreign  waters  which  shall  be  a  re 
spectable  and  proper  representative  of  a  country  like  our 
own.  The  public  lands  belong  to  the  people,  and  should 
not  be  alienated  from  them,  but  reserved  for  free  homes  for 


538  ELAINE    AND    L« 

all  desiring  to  possess  them,  and  filially  our  present  Indian 
policy  should  be  continued  and  improved  upon  as  our  experi 
ence  in  its  administration   may  from  time  to  time  suggest. 
I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe  myself,  sir, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 

JOHN  A.  LOGAN. 


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One  dollar  on  seventh  day  overdue. 


n  i"\  r*  h  b  J  uT 

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SEP  2  5195; 

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REC'D  LD 

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12  i960 

M7    '620 

REC'D  LD 

wJUM».Sd6JQ63s 

16)4120 

YB  37905 


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